Wideband low-profile low-temperature co-fired ceramic patch antenna with a differential-fed structure

Abstract

A novel wideband patch antenna with a differential-fed structure is proposed in this study. For this antenna, an H-shaped patch is first adopted to build a compact design. Then, by introducing a via-wall-plate pair as the differential feeding scheme, favourable radiation patterns and enhanced operating bandwidth can be achieved in a low profile. Furthermore, a Marchand balun is incorporated into the overall design to facilitate the test and direct integration with existing single-end radio-frequency circuits. The proposed antenna, which is designed and fabricated, using low-temperature co-fired ceramic technology, could be used to develop a highly integrated system-in-package. The measured results demonstrate that the proposed antenna with a low profile of 0.06λ(0) obtains an impedance bandwidth of 11.2%, a peak gain of 7.1 dBi, and a low cross-polarisation of better than −20 dB.

Keywords

• microstrip antennas
• broadband antennas
• antenna feeds
• baluns
• cross-polarisation
• single-end radio-frequency circuits
• Marchand balun
• differential feeding scheme
• H-shaped patch
• differential-fed structure
• wideband low-profile low-temperature cofired ceramic patch antenna