Microstrip Patch Antenna on LTCC Metamaterial Substrates in Millimeter Wave Bands In Kwang Kim, and Vasundara V.

Varadan Microwave and Optics Laboratory for Imaging and Characterization, Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Arkansas, 700 Research Center Boulevard, Fayetteville, AR 72701 E-mail: vvvesm@uark.edu Introduction There has been much research to improve the properties and to reduce the size of microstrip antennas and high permittivity dielectric substrates have been considered to reduce the size of microstrip antennas [1-2]. High permeability materials are considered for the substrates of microstrip antennas instead of high permittivity materials [3-6]. But, Pendry was the first to suggest the use of Split Ring Resonators (SRRs) as a canonical metamaterial structure that gives rise to an effective magnetic response without the need for magnetic materials [7]. When we design a microstrip antenna on the metamaterial substrate, which has SRR structures in the substrate, we can reduce the size of a microstrip patch antenna [8]. Additionally, if we use the SRRs that have various scales in the substrate, we can design the multi-band antenna [9]. The SRR is a ring with a gap. When the axis of the ring is parallel with the magnetic field, the strong induced current in the SRR results in a magnetic resonance whose frequency depends on the scale of the geometry. We can change the resonance frequency from low frequency to optical bands by changing the scale of the SRR. Metamaterial substrates for millimeter wave bands can also be designed by scaling the SRR structures. Millimeter wave systems have many advantages for military and commercial applications. They have better resolution than microwave systems because of the narrow beamwidth. This is proper for radar systems [10]. In the commercial area, the demand on the EM frequency spectrum has suddenly increased with the rapid growth of wireless systems. However, the frequency spectrum is limited and microwave frequency bands are saturated, hence millimeter frequency bands can be a solution to provide more spectrum resources [11]. Automotive radar systems are an important application of millimeter wave systems. Long Range Radars are used for collision avoidance systems whose bandwidth is 76-77GHz. Short Range Radars can help safe driving. European Union additionally made the standard for Ultra Wide Band (UWB) Short Range Radar at 77-81GHz band in 2005[12]. In the case of the millimeter wave band, the dimension of the SRR is less than 1mm. We also need 3-D fabrication to design SRR structures in the substrate. We considered LTCC (Low-Temperature Co-fired Ceramic) manufacturing for multilayer structures. The LTCC film has stable characteristics in the high frequency bands (~100GHz). Besides, this technique offers integrated and complex multilayer fabrication at low-cost. Several studies considered effective parameters of metamaterial substrates to extract the properties of antennas [3-6]. However, if we design a microstrip patch antenna using effective parameters, which is calculated without the antenna structure, we cannot consider the capacitive coupling between the patch of the antenna and metamaterial structures. In this paper, a study of millimeter wave microstrip antennas with metamaterial substrates suitable for LTCC fabrication is presented. The operational frequency of the antennas is from 76 GHz to 81 GHz for automotive radar applications. The performance of the microstrip patch antenna with the underlying SRRs using full wave simulation is

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compared with results obtained using effective properties for the SRR substrate. We show that the capacitive coupling between the patch antenna and the SRR microstructure changes the characteristics of microstrip antennas. Simulation of LTCC Metamaterial Substrate Figure 1 (a). shows the geometry of the SRR unit cell that is suitable for LTCC fabrication. Ferro A6 ceramic tape, whose permittivity is 5.9+j0.0118 and permeability is one, is used for the substrate. The substrate has three layers of ceramic film and the thickness of each layer (d) is 0.1 mm so that the total thickness of the substrate is 0.3 mm. The microstructure is composed of two SRRs. The SRR has a loop, which is composed of two metal lines and two microvias. Metal lines are connected by microvias filled with metal. The width of the metal lines (LW) and the size of the gap (G) are 0.05 mm. The radius of the microvia is 0.025 mm. The length and width of the microstructure are 0.35 mm. The distance between the centers of the unit cells is 0.7 mm. The middle layer, which needs microvia, is punched using a mechanical punching system and filled with silver conductor pastes. Metal lines are printed on the middle and bottom layers. After aligning all layers, samples are formed by the lamination process. To extract the effective permittivity and permeability, the reflection and transmission coefficients are simulated for the incident plane wave using Ansoft HFSS full wave simulator. The effective parameters can be extracted from these parameters [13]. The effective permittivity and permeability of the substrate with the SRR are shown in Fig. 1(b), (c). The real part of permeability () is negative from 82.5 GHz to 84 GHz. The operation frequency of microstrip antenna is designed at a lower frequency than the resonance frequency of SRRs [8-9]. The real part of the permeability is very high at the resonance of the SRR. However, the imaginary part is also high so that it is difficult to design antenna close to the resonance of the SRR. The reflection and transmission coefficients of the substrate using full wave simulation are compared with using effective parameters as presented in Fig. 1 to verify the accuracy of the effective parameters. Fig. 2. shows the comparison and both the reflection and transmission coefficients are same with each other. The transmission coefficient has the minimum value between 82.5 GHz and 84 GHz. Therefore, the real part of the permeability is negative at the resonance frequency of the SRR.

(a) Geometry

(b) Effective permittivity

(c) Effective permeability

Fig. 1. SRR unit cell for LTCC fabrication (W=L=0.35mm, LW=0.05mm, d=0.1mm, R=0.025mm, G=0.05mm, Substrate : r=5.9+j0.0118, r=1, Total thickness of = 0.3mm)

(a) Reflection coefficient (b) Transmission coefficient Fig. 2. Comparison of the reflection and transmission coefficients of the SRR metamaterial using full wave simulation and effective parameters as shown in Fig. 1.

Simulation of LTCC Metamaterial Substrates with Microstrip Patch Antenna A microstrip patch antenna is designed using the metamaterial substrate discussed in the previous sections. Fig 3. shows the geometry of the unit cell with the microstrip patch antenna. Full wave simulation is used to model the capacitive coupling between the patch antenna and the SRRs. The size of the patch antenna is 0.35mm x 0.35mm and the distance between the patch antenna and the SRR structure (h) is 0.09mm. The thickness of the patch antenna is 0.01mm, which is same as that of the metal line in the SRR structure. Some authors [3-6] have modeled the patch antenna on a substrate having a eff and eff as shown in Fig. 1. In this case, we cannot consider the capacitive coupling. In the results that follow, we show comparisons of the two models.

(a) (b) Fig. 3. Geometry of the unit cell with the microstrip patch antenna (a) using full wave simulation (b) using effective properties as shown in Fig. 1. (Patch antenna : 0.35mm x 0.35mm, the thickness=0.01mm, h=0.09mm)

We first compute the reflection and transmission coefficients of a patch antenna without the ground plane using the two models described in the previous paragraph. The results are presented in Fig. 4. We can see that the results for the two different models of the substrate, one that takes into account the actual microstructure in the substrate and the other that just models the substrate by effective properties are quite different. The resonance frequency moves to lower values because of the capacitive coupling between the patch antenna and the SRR microstructure.

(a) Reflection coefficient (b) Transmission coefficient Fig. 4. Comparison of the reflection and transmission coefficients of the SRR metamaterials with the patch antenna using full wave simulation and effective parameters as shown in Fig. 1.

To study this effect, we calculate the resonance frequency as a function of the distance h between the patch antenna and the underlying SRR structure. This is shown in Fig. 5. For purposes of this figure, the resonance frequency is defined as the minimum of the S11 or S21 vs frequency curve. The actual plasmonic frequency is in the vicinity of this minimum. Fig. 5 indicates that the positions of these minima are very different as the capacitive coupling changes with distance between the patch antenna and the underlying SRRs. This effect will not be seen if one uses effective properties to model the Sparameters, as had been done in [3-6]. The capacitance decreases as the distance (h) increases and hence the resonance frequency is increased because the capacitance value and the resonance frequency are in inverse proportion to one other. However, in the case of the substrate using effective properties, the resonance frequency decreases as the distance increases because the resonance frequency of the SRR is decreased [14]. The difference between two models increases with decreasing h because the capacitive coupling decreases.

Fig. 5.

(a) Reflection coefficient (b) Transmission coefficient Resonance frequency vs distance between the patch antenna and the SRR structure.

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