Scalable 3-D-Printable Antenna Array With Liquid Cooling for 28 GHz

This article presents a scalable and compact 3-D-printed Vivaldi antenna array with liquid cooling for the frequency band from 24.0 to 29.5 GHz. The proposed design consists of an <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$8 \times 8$ </tex-math></inline-formula> antenna array with commercial beam-forming integrated circuits (ICs) on the antenna side of the PCB for efficient PCB area utilization that enables a high integration level. Scalable liquid cooling is integrated into the 3-D-printed antenna array. The measured temperature with water cooling during operation remains below <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$50 ^{\circ} \text{C}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. The simulated total active reflection coefficient (TARC) of the unit cell is lower than −9.6 dB for beam steering angles up to 57° from the broadside. The effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of the prototypes is up to 59.7 dBm.

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