Proceedings of the 48th European Microwave Conference

A Rectangular Waveguide-to-Coplanar Waveguide

Transition at D-band Using Wideband Patch Antenna
Yunfeng Dong#1 , Tom K. Johansen#2 , Vitaliy Zhurbenko#3 , and Peter Jesper Hanberg∗4
#
Electromagnetic Systems, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
∗
DTU Danchip, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
{1 yundon, 2 tkj, 3 vz}@elektro.dtu.dk, 4 [email protected]

Abstract—This paper presents the design of a transition

at D-band (110–170 GHz) between rectangular waveguide and
coplanar waveguide (CPW) using wideband patch antenna. With
the rectangular ring structure, the proposed patch antenna is
specialized for high gain and large bandwidth which can be used
for wireless chip-to-chip communication or implemented as a
rectangular waveguide-to-CPW transition. A simulated gain of
7.4 dBi with 36% bandwidth centered at 140 GHz is achieved.
The fabricated rectangular waveguide-to-CPW transition in a
back-to-back configuration exhibits a bandwidth of 42.2 GHz at
D-band. From 118.8 GHz to 161 GHz, the return loss is better
than 10 dB and each fabricated rectangular waveguide-to-CPW
transition introduces less than 2 dB insertion loss.
Keywords—patch antennas, ultra wideband antennas, wireless Fig. 1. Envisaged structure of the wideband patch antenna when it is
communication, integrated circuit packaging. integrated on a chip (circuit from [6]).

I. I NTRODUCTION
rectangular ring structure which increases the gain and enlarges
With the ever increasing demand worldwide for high-speed the bandwidth without adding extra component. Besides, it
data transmission, wideband antennas have been widely used is fed by CPW directly where the rectangular patch at the
for wireless chip-to-chip communication as well as system in- center is connected to the signal trace and the ground traces
tegration and packaging at millimeter-wave and submillimeter- are designed as a part of the patch antenna. Apart from being
wave frequencies. However, not all types of antennas are used for wireless chip-to-chip communication, the proposed
suitable since the chips at such high frequencies mainly wideband patch antenna can also be implemented as a rectan-
rely on planar structures due to their fabrication processes. gular waveguide-to-CPW transition for system integration and
The designs and implementations of wideband antennas are packaging. The waveguide package not only provides isolation
normally subjected to several concerns including the size, and protection to the chip but also serves as the standardized
substrate, radiation characteristics, and operating bandwidth. interface for connecting with other components and systems.
The challenge is to achieve a high gain and at the same time In this work, a wideband patch antenna for D-band
a large bandwidth within a limited occupation area. Besides, applications is designed and analyzed by using High Frequency
the designed antenna should be compatible with the planar Structural Simulator (HFSS). In order to validate the concept,
transmission lines used for the circuits, otherwise coplanar an antenna prototype based on quartz substrate is implemented
transitions might have to be added which introduce extra which can be reconfigured for other substrates such as gallium
discontinuities and losses. As is reported in [1], a bandwidth arsenide (GaAs) or indium phosphide (InP). In Section II,
of 29 GHz is achieved by the proposed Yagi antenna at W- the design of wideband patch antenna for wireless chip-to-
band (75–110 GHz) which corresponds to 31.4% bandwidth chip communication is described. Besides, the simulated return
while the gain is around 0.4 dBi at 94 GHz. In [2], by loss and the far-field radiation characteristics are explained. In
placing the stacked dielectric resonators on the top of the Section III, the optimization of the wideband patch antenna
proposed meander slot antenna, a measured gain of 4.7 dBi and the design of rectangular waveguide-to-CPW transition
is achieved at 130 GHz with 11% bandwidth. The directivity in a back-to-back configuration are demonstrated. In Section
of the wideband antenna can be further increased by adding IV, the fabricated rectangular waveguide-to-CPW transition in
a hemisphere silicon lens on the top of the substrate or using a back-to-back configuration is shown and the measurement
an array with feeding networks while either extra chip-level results are compared with the simulation results.
assembly or large occupation area is required [3]–[5].
Fig. 1 shows the envisaged structure of the proposed II. W IDEBAND PATCH A NTENNA FOR W IRELESS
wideband patch antenna when it is integrated on a chip. Con- C HIP - TO -C HIP C OMMUNICATION
ventional patch antenna has a certain dimension related to the
operating frequency and simple planar structure which can be The wideband patch antenna shown in Fig. 2 is designed for
easily connected to different planar transmission lines. Being wireless chip-to-chip communication. In the communication
improved, the proposed patch antenna shown in Fig. 1 has a link, the transceiver chips are aligned towards each other in the

978-2-87487-051-4 © 2018 EuMA 1045 25–27 Sept 2018, Madrid, Spain

 (°)
-180 -150 -120 -90 -60 -30 0 30 60 90 120 150 180
-2 8
|S |
-4 11 6
°
-6 =0 4
°
=90
-8 2
-10 0

Gain (dBi), 140 GHz

S-parameters (dB)
-12 -2
-14 Z -4
-16 -6
θ
-18 -8
-20 -10
-22 -12
-24 -14
-26 -16
X φ Y
-28 -18
110 115 120 125 130 135 140 145 150 155 160 165 170
Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 3. Simulated return loss at D-band and far-field radiation patterns of the
wideband patch antenna at 140 GHz.

The solid line in Fig. 3 shows the simulated return loss of

the wideband patch antenna at D-band. With the rectangular
ring structure, the wideband patch antenna achieves a band-
width of 50.5 GHz ranging from 115.3 GHz to 165.6 GHz in
which the simulated return loss remains better than 10 dB and
Fig. 2. Designed wideband patch antenna for wireless chip-to-chip commu- it corresponds to 36% bandwidth centered at 140 GHz. The
nication. dashed lines in Fig. 3 show the simulated far-field radiation
patterns of the wideband patch patch antenna at 140 GHz when
φ equals 0◦ and 90◦ , respectively. A simulated antenna gain
direction of maximum radiation and the packaging structure of 7.4 dBi is achieved in the direction perpendicular to the
can be avoided. The designed wideband patch antenna is wideband patch antenna where θ and φ are 0◦ . Compared with
patterned on a conductor layer which is located on the top of the conventional patch antenna at D-band, larger bandwidth
the quartz substrate. Besides, another conductor layer is added and higher gain can be provided by the proposed patch antenna
on the bottom which serves as a ground plane. The quartz while the occupation area is comparable.
substrate has a thickness of 150 µm and the material of the
conductor layer is gold. Due to the skin effect, the thickness of III. W IDEBAND PATCH A NTENNA FOR R ECTANGULAR
the conductor layer should be more than the skin depth at the WAVEGUIDE - TO -CPW T RANSITION
lower frequency limit of D-band. As a result, the conductor
layer with a thickness of 400 nm is used for designing the For system integration and packaging, the proposed wide-
wideband patch antenna. band patch antenna can be implemented as a rectangular
As a part of the wideband patch antenna, a 50 Ω CPW feed waveguide-to-CPW transition. Since rectangular waveguide
with a length of 670 µm is included in the design which makes serves as a standardized interface for connecting with other
it possible for being integrated on-chip or connected with other components and systems, the gain of the system can be further
circuits based on CPW. The width of the signal trace is 50 µm increased. As is reported in [7], the wireless chip-to-chip
and the width of the ground traces is 100 µm with a gap width communication is realized by connecting a horn antenna to
of 20 µm. The signal trace is connected to a patch which is a rectangular waveguide-to-CPW transition which provides
cut into a rectangular ring connecting to a smaller rectangular higher gain and larger bandwidth in comparison to the patch
patch at the center of the patch geometry. The ground traces antenna itself. Fig. 4 shows the packaging structure of the
are tapered out from 100 µm to 176 µm around the patch proposed rectangular waveguide-to-CPW transition at D-band
geometry forming another rectangular ring. The dimensions using wideband patch antenna.
of the wideband patch antenna as well as the quartz substrate The packaging structure shown in Fig. 4 is in a back-to-
are summarized in Fig. 2. They are optimized for achieving the back configuration where WR-6.5 rectangular waveguides are
maximum bandwidth and gain at D-band. In order to simulate used as the input and output guiding electromagnetic waves.
the far-field radiation characteristics, the coordinate system is At the beginning, the rectangular waveguide turns 90◦ towards
assigned to the center of the patch geometry and an air box the transition in the direction perpendicular to the wideband
is added around the designed wideband patch antenna which patch antenna. Besides, in order to guide electromagnetic
is large enough reaching the antenna far-field region. Lumped waves smoothly and overcome the discontinuities, a tapered
port with vertical perfect electric conductor (PEC) bridge is waveguide structure with a length of 1000 µm is introduced
used as the excitation scheme where the PEC bridge touches where the width is kept constant and the height is reduced from
the ground traces and the port is assigned to a sheet between 825.5 µm to 680 µm. The wideband patch antenna is located at
the signal trace and the PEC bridge. The parasitic inductance the end of the rectangular waveguide. The depth of the cavity
of the port is calibrated out from the simulation results. is 150 µm which equals the thickness of the quartz substrate.

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Fig. 4. Rectangular waveguide-to-CPW transition in a back-to-back config-
uration.

Due to the fabrication process, the cavity has rounded corners

with a radius of 200 µm and they are included in the design for
accuracy improvement. On the quartz substrate two transitions
are connected by a CPW in the middle and the air cavity above
the CPW has a height of 250 µm with the purpose of restricting
Fig. 5. Designed wideband patch antenna for rectangular waveguide-to-CPW
parasitic modes. transition.
When the proposed wideband patch antenna shown in
Fig. 2 is implemented as a rectangular waveguide-to-CPW
transition and aluminium is used for the packaging structure,
the dimensions of the wideband patch antenna are optimized
based on the new environment conditions. Fig. 5 shows the
designed wideband patch antenna with optimized dimensions
in a back-to-back configuration. The length and width of the
quartz substrate are 2238 µm and 1050 µm, respectively. It is
also the typical size of the transceiver chips at D-band. Besides,
there is no gap between the quartz substrate and the walls of
the cavity which helps to restrict parasitic modes and align the
wideband patch antenna. The CPW in the middle of the quartz
substrate has a length of 1200 µm which includes two antenna
feeds and a connection. Unlike the wideband patch antenna
designed for wireless communication which has a relatively
large ground plane for radiation enhancement, the termination Fig. 6. Magnitude of electric field distribution for the proposed rectangular
of the rectangular waveguide serves as the bottom ground plane waveguide-to-CPW transition at 140 GHz.
for the optimized wideband patch antenna which results in a
more compact design. The total length and width of the patch
geometry are reduced to 628 µm and 1050 µm, respectively. high transmission loss or strong reflection and the propagation
In order to simulate the proposed rectangular waveguide- mode is converted smoothly.
to-CPW transition, wave ports are used as the excitation
scheme and they are assigned to the input and output surfaces IV. FABRICATION AND E XPERIMENTAL R ESULTS
of the packaging structure. The magnitude of electric field
distribution for the packaging structure at 140 GHz is shown In order to prove the concept, the rectangular waveguide-to-
in Fig. 6 in which the packaging structure is cut vertically in CPW transition using wideband patch antenna shown in Fig. 4
the middle along the long edge of the quartz substrate. At the was fabricated in a back-to-back configuration. For easier
beginning of the rectangular waveguide-to-CPW transition, the fabrication and substrate alignment, the aluminium packaging
electric fields going through the tapered waveguide structure structure was divided into three parts and each part was
are compressed and coupled into the wideband patch antenna. fabricated from an aluminium block by a milling process which
Due to the rectangular ring structure on the patch geometry, the uses a spinner with a radius of 200 µm. Fig. 7 shows the
electric fields are concentrated in the slots. Since the wideband fabricated packaging structure and the quartz substrate in a
patch antennas on the quartz substrate are fed by a CPW, back-to-back configuration. For assembly, two parts on the top
the electric fields mainly exist in the two gaps between the contain the input and output WR-6.5 rectangular waveguides
signal and ground traces. With the carefully designed wideband which are connected by using two guide pins and two screws.
patch antenna as well as the tapered waveguide structure, The cavity for the quartz substrate was milled on the bottom
the proposed rectangular waveguide-to-CPW transition can part where four guide pins and four screws are used for
provide a large bandwidth at D-band which does not introduce combining it with other two parts.

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 0
-2
-4
-6
-10

-15

S-parameters (dB)
-20

-25

-30

-35

-40 |S11| Simulation

|S11| Measurement
-45
|S | Simulation
21
-50
|S | Measurement
21
-55
110 115 120 125 130 135 140 145 150 155 160 165 170
Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 8. Simulation and measurement results of the proposed rectangular

waveguide-to-CPW transition in a back-to-back configuration.

V. C ONCLUSION
The designs of wideband patch antennas at D-band
used for wireless chip-to-chip communication and rectangular
waveguide-to-CPW transition have been presented. For wire-
Fig. 7. Fabricated rectangular waveguide-to-CPW transition in a back-to-back less chip-to-chip communication, the proposed wideband patch
configuration. antenna shows a simulated gain of 7.4 dBi with 36% bandwidth
centered at 140 GHz which corresponds to a bandwidth
of 50.3 GHz ranging from 115.3 GHz to 165.6 GHz. For
The proposed transition in a back-to-back configura- system integration and packaging, a rectangular waveguide-
tion was fabricated at Danchip (National Center for Micro- to-CPW transition in a back-to-back configuration has been
and Nanofabrication in Denmark). The quartz substrate was designed, fabricated, and measured. The assembly structure
cleaned by sputtering at the beginning. After that a titanium has been illustrated in which the aluminium package was
layer with a thickness of 30 nm and a gold layer with divided into three parts. Besides, for accuracy improvement,
a thickness of 400 nm were deposited on the top where TRL calibration has been applied to the measurement by
the titanium layer was used to improve the adhesion of the using a waveguide calibration kit. The measured return loss
gold layer. The wideband patch antennas and the CPW were is better than 10 dB from 118.8 GHz to 161 GHz which
patterned on the quartz substrate by laser ablation which uses corresponds to a bandwidth of 42.2 GHz at D-band. Each
a picosecond laser with a wavelength of 355 nm focused down fabricated rectangular waveguide-to-CPW transition introduces
to a spot size of approximate 10 µm. For dicing process, the less than 2 dB insertion loss.
patterned quartz substrate was sticked on a silicon wafer in
order to overcome the stress. Besides, silver conductive glue R EFERENCES
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