A Wideband Circularly Polarized Patch Antenna for 60 GHz Wireless Communications

Abstract

This paper presents the design of a fully packaged 60 GHz wideband patch antenna incorporating an air cavity and a fused silica superstrate. Circular polarization (CP) is realized by introducing a diagonal slot at the center of the square patch. By optimizing the patch and the slot dimensions, a high efficiency (>90%) microstrip fed CP antenna with an impedance bandwidth of 24% and a 6 dB axial ratio bandwidth of 21.5% is designed. A coplanar waveguide (CPW) to microstrip transition with λ/4-open-ended stubs are then designed to match the antenna to the CPW packaging interface. The experimental results of the final packaged antenna agree reasonably with the simulation results, demonstrating an impedance bandwidth of more than 26% and a 6 dB axial ratio bandwidth of 22.7%.