Millimeter-wave plastic waveguide phased array antenna

Low cost and high performance millimeter-wave phased array antennas have been demanded in recent years due to increasing millimeter-wave applications in highspeed mobile communications, broadband wireless LAN/PAN (WLAN/WPAN), automotive collision avoidance radars, and so on. Several types of millimeter-wave antennas and components have been proposed for these systems. For example, plastic waveguide structures, which are composed of hollow liquid crystal polymer (LCP) and plated copper [1], [2], have been reported in order to reduce the cost for mass-production scheme. However, the phased array antennas are difficult to form their complex configurations and difficult to obtain low-loss characteristics as well. This paper presents millimeter-wave waveguide-type phased array antennas using low-loss engineering plastics not only to reduce cost but also to obtain high performances with complex configurations. That is a Cyclo-Olefin Polymer (COP) waveguide horn array antenna which is fabricated by injection molding process [3].

[1]  M. Miyazaki,et al.  A design of novel grooved circular waveguide polarizers , 2000, IMS 2000.

[2]  N. Yoneda,et al.  Metal-plated plastic waveguide filter using injection molding process , 2003, IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest, 2003.

[3]  N. Yoneda,et al.  Ku-band power combiner composed of metal-plated plastic waveguide hybrid , 2004, 2004 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37535).