Probe Based Radiation Pattern Measurements for
Highly Integrated Millimeter-Wave Antennas
Stefan Beer, Thomas Zwick
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Institut fuer Hochfrequenztechnik und Elektronik (IHE)
Kaiserstr. 12, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany
stefan.beer@kit.edu, thomas.zwick@kit.edu
Abstract— This paper presents the existing measurement
solutions for integrated millimeter-wave antennas as well as the
novel measurement assembly at the authors’ institute. This setup
allows probe based radiation pattern, gain and return loss
measurements of antennas in the frequency range between 50
and 110 GHz. In the setup a far field distance of 60 cm is
achieved that allows the characterization of antenna arrays as
well as complete packaging solutions that include a dielectric lens
or a parabolic reflector. The use of a VNA and a custom made
wafer chuck makes it possible to measure the antenna’s return
loss in the same setup. A custom made bended waveguide and a
horn antenna can be used to achieve a proper gain calibration.
Using two rotary stages a receive antenna can be rotated around
the antenna under test to measure its 3D radiation pattern.
I. INTRODUCTION
Usually antennas are measured in an anechoic chamber on
a rotating tower. In that case the AUT (Antenna Under Test) is
connected to the measurement system by a coaxial cable or a
waveguide connector and then rotated around its axis to
measure the radiation pattern. For printed mmw (millimeter-
wave) antennas it becomes more and more difficult to contact
these with a coaxial plug or a waveguide connector as their
size is in the range or even below the size of the plugs.
Additionally, as antennas are more frequently integrated
directly onto the semiconductor chip or into the chip package,
the measurement of these integrated antennas would be
distorted if a plug was used. In that case it becomes favorable
to contact the AUT with a RF (radio frequency) probe while
measuring it. Thus it becomes possible to characterize the
AUT exactly at the point where it will be connected to the
chip later and the difficult attachment of a plug or connector
that is not used in the packaging solution is avoided.
II. PROBE BASED MEASUREMENT SOLUTIONS
In [1] antennas are for the first time contacted by a RF
probe. The system is calibrated to the probe tips to allow a
correct measurement of the antenna impedance. Two identical
antennas are aligned in a known distance R to measure the
gain in direction of the main lobe. The antennas are positioned
on an expanded foam block instead of a metallic probe station
to avoid reflections.
A probe based radiation pattern measurement is for the first
time presented in [2]. The AUT is positioned on a usual probe
station that is covered with absorbing material. An open ended
waveguide – used as the measurement antenna – is attached to
a plexiglass arm that is rotated by a step motor. Thus the
radiation pattern is measured in one sectional half plane. Due
to the fact that not all metal parts of the probe station can be
covered with absorbing material measurement errors occur.
A similar setup is proposed in [3] for antennas in the
frequency range of 2 GHz to 40 GHz. In that case the AUT is
positioned above a cavity that is filled with absorbing material
to avoid reflections. Here two sectional half planes can be
measured. The arm to which the measurement antenna is
attached can be shifted in length to reach a far field distance of
up to 1.5 m.
A setup based on a near-field far-field transformation is
presented in [4]. A near-field measurement probe is scanning
the antenna’s near-field above the AUT in two dimensions.
Then the far-field pattern in the half-plane above the AUT can
be calculated. The setup is dimensioned for antennas around
24 GHz. The necessary maximum distance (a fifth wavelength)
between the AUT and the near-field probe however impedes
the measurement of antennas above 24 GHz.
One of the authors for the first time presented a setup in
which the AUT is measured quasi in air, completely without a
probe station [5]. The AUT is clipped to a sample holder,
which is attached to a long arm. Another arm is attached to a
probe head and holds the RF probe. Around the AUT a
waveguide arm is rotated to which a measurement horn
antenna is connected. The distance from the horn to the AUT
is 38 cm. Depending on the plane which has to be measured
the step motor is attached to the floor or to the wall. Thus 3
sectoral planes can be measured in total or nearly in total. A
gain calibration can be fulfilled by attaching a reference horn
with well known gain exactly at the point where the AUT
would be positioned. The return loss is measured in the same
setup as a VNA is used.
A similar system that is also based on a waveguide arm that
rotates around the AUT in one of three possible cut planes is
presented in [6]. This assembly is placed in a small anechoic
chamber to reduce reflections. A spectrum analyzer is used to
measure the transmission loss in every rotation angle and thus
to calculate the radiation pattern. Using a GSGSG probe the
symmetrical antenna is measured without using a balun on the
substrate, however a waveguide balun is used between probe
and measurement receiver.
During the time when the authors where building the new
setup at their institute another setup was presented that for the
first time allowed a probe based 3-dimensional radiation
pattern measurement [7]. This is achieved by using two
stepper motors and two arms that can rotate a measurement
antenna on the surface of a sphere around the AUT. In that
case the AUT is also measured quasi in air to avoid reflections.
A gain calibration is achieved by connecting the signal source
directly to the spectrum analyzer that is used on the receiver
side. The calculated free-space loss is then subtracted from the
measurement results. Thus the 3-D radiation pattern and the
gain can be calculated.
III. MEASUREMENT ASSEMBLY AT IHE
Based on the works mentioned and the work previously
fulfilled by the authors a new measurement setup was realized
at the Institut fuer Hochfrequenztechnik und Elektronik (IHE).
The aim was to be able to measure the 3-D radiation pattern in
both polarizations, the gain and the return loss of printed
mmw antennas as well as arrays or complete packaging
solutions that include a reflector or a lens.
Fig. 1 Measurement setup
A. Mechanical Assembly
Realized was a setup mechanically similar to [7] in which
two step motors and two arms are used to rotate a receive horn
around the AUT, as can be seen in Fig. 1. In contrast to [7] the
bigger rotary stage was attached onto the floor, exactly in the
axis below the AUT and thus the second and smaller rotary
stage is positioned in the horizontal plane of the AUT.
Through this configuration and through the use of
counterweights it became possible to achieve a larger far field
distance of 60 cm without overloading the stepper motors. The
two rotary stages which are consistent with the azimuth and
elevation angles allow it to either measure nearly the complete
3D-radiation pattern or three sectional planes without
circumstantially rearranging the setup like in [5], [6]. The
attachment of the measurement horn is rotatable around 90° to
realize the measurement of both polarizations. The rotating
angle of the arms is partly blocked by the table such that the
horizontal plane can only be measured within 270° and one
vertical plane only within 255°.
The AUT sample holder is attached to a plastic arm whose
other end is attached to the measurement table, as can be seen
in Fig. 2. Directly above, the probe is attached to another
plastic arm. This arm also holds the signal source and the
waveguide couplers and is attached to a 3-D probe head. Thus
the probe can be aligned and landed on the AUT as it is
common on a usual probe station. The alignment of the probe
can be observed using a digital microscope that is connected
to a PC and provides a 200x magnification. The additional
arm that holds the microscope can be turned out of the
measurement range during measurement.
Fig. 2 Probe head for accurate probe alignment
The AUT sample holder (Fig. 3) is made of dielectric foam
with a low permittivity (εr< 1.1) and low losses (tanδ < 0.001).
Thus it resembles air in terms of electromagnetic properties.
The AUT substrate is attached to the foam such that the
antenna itself is positioned in air while the probe pads are
above the foam. Therefore the antenna is measured quasi-in-
air while the dielectric microscope allows probing the pads.
B. Measurement Equipment
The used measurement equipment is the Agilent 85325
V/W Millimeter Subsystem, based on 2 signal generators, a
pre-amplifier, a millimeter-wave source, waveguide couplers,
harmonic mixers, diplexers and a receiver, as depicted in
Fig. 4. Measurements can either be performed in V- or W-
Band, as the mmw source and the harmonic mixers have to be
interchanged. An advantage of the system is that the two test
ports comprise a diplexer. One of these diplexers is positioned
on the rotating arm (opposite to the receive antenna to correct reflection coefficient rAUT can be calculated out of the
counterweight) and thus only one coaxial cable has to be measured reflection coefficient s11,M using
connected through the rotary stages using single port rotary s11,M − e00
joints. Directly down-converting the signal at the rAUT = . (1)
measurement horn also improves the dynamic range in e11 (s11,M − e00 ) + e10e01
contrast to the systems in [5], [6]. The use of a VNA instead
of a spectrum analyser [6], [7] allows return loss
measurements, a proper gain calibration, as well as gating in
time domain. €

Fig. 5 Impedance Calibration using a calibration substrate

D. Gain Calibration
To determine the gain of the AUT, an additional calibration
measurement has to be performed to identify the free space
loss, as well as all system losses. Therefore a horn antenna
Fig. 3 AUT sample holder and coaxial RF probe with well known gain GHorn is attached to the system instead
of the probe and the AUT using a bended waveguide (Fig. 6).
Thus using the measurement result s21,Horn of the gain
calibration all system losses (including the free space loss) can
be calculated as
2
s21,Horn
GSystem = . (2)
GHorn

Fig. 4 Block diagram of measurement equipment

C. Impedance Calibration
The impedance calibration is a two step process that is also
needed for the gain calibration. The full calibration process is
described in more detail in chapter 17 of [8]. First, the
transmit path of the system is calibrated to the output of the
waveguide couplers. Then the influence of the probe and the
1 mm coaxial cable is calculated by performing an OSL
calibration to the probe tips using a custom made wafer chuck
and a standard calibration substrate, as can be seen in Fig. 5.
The wafer chuck is attached to the system instead of the AUT
sample holder. Based on the two port error model the error
terms e00, e11 and e10e01 can be determined by measuring the
three calibration standards open, short and load. Thus the
Fig. 6 Gain calibration using a reference horn
As the losses of the probe and the 1 mm cable have been
determined in the previous calibration step as GProbe= e10e01,
the proper gain of the AUT can then be calculated by
2
s21,M
GAUT = , (3)
GSystem ⋅ GPr obe
where s21,M is the measurement result of the AUT
transmission measurement for every angular direction needed.
Favourably, the gain calibration is performed at first,
because
€ more modifications have to be done at the setup. Also,
this calibration does not need phase measurement and thus is generated by reflections from the metallic probe which are
not as sensible to changes in temperature or drifts of the hard to suppress.
measurement equipment.

IV. MEASUREMENT RESULTS

Different 77 GHz antennas were designed on a 0.127 mm
thick Alumina substrate and measured with the described
setup in the W-Band.

A. Omni-directional Antenna
First, an omni-directional antenna has been measured, a
bow-tie slot antenna, as shown in Fig. 7. The bow-tie slot
antenna is known to yield wide bandwidth and high efficiency
while offering an easy way to influence the impedance for a
given resonance frequency by changing the dimensions w1
and w2. The resonance frequency is given by the slot length l,
which is 1.6 mm in our case. An optimized bandwidth was
found for the slot widths w1 = 0.32 mm, w2 = 1.5 mm.
(a) (b)
Fig. 9. Gain of the bow-tie slot antenna: (a) H-Plane. (b) E-Plane
B. End-fire Antenna
The measured end-fire antenna is a Vivaldi antenna with
the dimensions given in Fig. 10. The measured return loss
does not match the simulation results perfectly but tallies with
the fact that the matching is well below –10 dB up to 100 GHz.

Fig. 7 Omni-directional bow-tie slot antenna

The dual bow-tie antenna has a return loss of better 10 dB

from 75 to 87 GHz (Fig. 8). The measured and simulated
input return loss show good agreement. The H-Plane is Fig. 10 Vivaldi antenna
perpendicular to the feeding lines and can be measured
completely. The E-Plane is parallel to the feeding lines and
can be measured in a range of 255˚, while the rest of the plane
is blocked by the table. In both planes 0˚ is the direction
upwards and ±180˚ is the direction downwards through the
antenna substrate. The measured radiation patterns at 80 GHz
also confirm the simulation results and verify the omni-
directional behaviour (Fig. 9).

Fig. 11 Return Loss of the Vivaldi antenna

The antenna’s H-plane is perpendicular to the antenna

Fig. 8. Return Loss of the bow-tie slot antenna
The peaks in the E-plane around 90° have been observed
for different antennas and it is assumed that these are
substrate while the E-plane coincides with the substrate
surface. The measured gain is slightly below the simulation
results, but the radiation patterns agree well, as can be seen in
Fig. 12. As the measurement table is blocking some parts of
the measurement range both planes could not be measured
completely. To still be able to evaluate the backlobe, the same
Vivaldi antenna has been manufactured twice, once with
straight feeding lines and once with a 90° bend in the feeding
lines. Thus it becomes possible to measure the antenna’s
backlobe, as depicted in Fig. 13. Both radiation patterns agree
well within the overlapping range and a backlobe at around
1 dBi can be observed which is around 3 dB higher in regards
to the simulation results.
(a) (b)
Fig. 12 Gain of the Vivaldi antenna: (a) H-Plane. (b) E-Plane
(a) (b)
Fig. 13 Vivaldi antenna backlobe measurement: (a) H-Plane. (b) E-Plane
C. End-fire Antenna and Parabolic Reflector
The Vivaldi antenna has also been combined with a
cylindrical parabolic reflector to validate an antenna concept
for automotive radars [9]. To be able to measure this
antenna/reflector combination with the probe based setup, it is
very important that a far field distance of 60 cm is achieved,
which allows the measurement of apertures as large as 3.3 cm
at 80 GHz.
Fig. 14 Vivaldi antenna combined with a parabolic reflector
The antenna / reflector combination is depicted in Fig. 14
and the gain and radiation pattern measurement results in
Fig. 15. It can be observed that the shape of both E-plane and
H-plane beams comply with the simulation results and that
also the sidelobes in the H-plane are proved. The gain
deviation is mainly caused by the antenna itself and not by the
measurement setup.
(a) (b)
Fig. 15 Gain of the Vivaldi antenna with reflector: (a) H-Plane. (b) E-Plane
V. CONCLUSIONS
The described setup allows probe based radiation pattern,
gain and return loss measurements of antennas in the
frequency range between 50 and 110 GHz. In the setup a far
field distance of 60 cm is achieved that even allows to
measure an antenna that is combined with a parabolic reflector.
The use of a VNA and a custom made wafer chuck makes it
possible to measure the antenna’s return loss in the same setup.
Additionally measurement results can be gated in time domain
to erase potential reflections at surrounding walls. A gain
calibration that even de-embeds the influence of the RF probe
is achieved by using a two step calibration process. The setup
allows 3D-radiation pattern measurements or the measurement
of different sectoral planes without mechanical alterations.
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