Summary
International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation
2008
Session Number:3C28
Session:
Number:3C28-3
COP Millimeter-Wave Horn Array Antenna
Yoji Aramaki, Hiromitsu Uchida, Tamotsu Nishino, Naofumi Yoneda, Izuru Naito, Hiroaki Miyashita, Yoshihiko Konishi,
pp.-
Publication Date:2008/10/27
Online ISSN:2188-5079
Summary:
Low cost and high performance millimeter-wave array antennas have been demanded in recent years due to increasing millimeter-wave applications in high-speed mobile communications, automobile collision avoidance radars, etc. Plastic waveguides, which are composed of hollow liquid crystal polymer (LCP) and plated copper, have been reported to reduce the cost [1,2], while array antenna system requests complex configuration that can not be realized by the structure. This paper introduces a Cyclo-Olefin Polymer (COP) millimeter-wave horn array antenna which is manufactured by injection molding process. The antenna consists of a low loss dielectric waveguide covered by plated copper as shown in Fig.1. Our proposed antenna guides the electromagnetic wave inside the dielectric, which is different from the LCP structure. COP was selected to reduce transmission loss. The cross-sectional size of the waveguide can be reduced by filling with dielectric, thereby enabling a dense layout of radiating elements. Therefore, a one-dimensional APAA can be realized by arranging this array antenna in the beam scanning direction. The antenna is composed of horns, grooved circular waveguide polarizers [3], E-plane T-junctions, and E-plane bends employing copper plated dielectric waveguides. This structure makes it possible to manufacture the feed circuit and radiating elements as an integrated unit by using injection molding [1,2] and can improve the mass-producibility of millimeter-wave antennas.