TRENCHEDSILICONMICROSTRIPANTENNAARRAYSWITH GROUND PLANEEFFECTS

In this paperwetetched micromachined trenches withconductor hangovers areusedalong the radiating edgesofseries-fed microstrip patcharrays fabricated onahighresistivity (10kflcm) silicon. Such arrays aresuitable forintegration into advanced mobile wireless products. Experimental andsimulation results showthatthese trenches reduce theeffective dielectric constant ofthesubstrate andimprove theantenna radiation patterns. Itisshownforthese antennas that conventional backplate metallisation evaporation procedures require special masking andaretherefore expensive to implement The effect ofalternative backplane configurations isdiscussed indetail anditis suggested thata separate intimate groundplaneis necessary foroptimal trenched array performance.