Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, KL, MALAYSIA, March 27–30, 2012 1501

Millimeter-wave Design of Broadband Active Integrated Microstrip

Patch Antenna
Mohammad Mahdi Honari, Abdolali Abdipour, and Gholamreza Moradi
Microwave/Millimeter Wave and Wireless Communication Research Lab
Department of Electrical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology
Tehran 15914, Iran

Abstract— In this paper, a broadband active integrated antenna in millimeter wave frequency
band is presented. For the direct integration, the output matching network is omitted so the
microstrip antenna operates as an output matching network of the power amplifier and radiator.
The power amplifier and microstrip antenna are designed to operate in wide bandwidth. The out-
put power of the amplifier is obtained about 19.94 dBm for optimized load by load pull analysis.
In this design, it is employed aperture-stacked patch microstrip antenna due to its wide band-
width and isolation with the power amplifier by the ground. The simulated input impedance,
radiation pattern and cross polarization of the aperture-stacked antenna are adequate within
impedance bandwidth of 24 to 32 GHz.

1. INTRODUCTION
Active integrated antennas (AIA’s) make available a new prototype for designing millimeter wave
architecture, satellite communications and modern microwave. Integration of the antenna can re-
sult in lower insertion loss, smaller size and weight, lower cost and greater efficiency as compared
to conventional system. The amplifier-type active antenna has been a main issue in recent re-
searches [1]. In [2], a novel fully integrated active antenna using the direct integration between
power amplifier and antenna is proposed to obtain high PAE and compact RF-front end because of
omitting interconnecting elements between the amplifier and antenna. On the other hand, there is
a growing interest in communication systems that operates in the millimeter wave frequency band
in order to take advantage of the wider bandwidth that is accessible at the high frequencies [3].
However, it is well known that at high frequencies dielectric and conductor losses are significant,
mainly in great systems, and this reduces the overall gain performance. In a broadband AIA,
the antenna design in wide bandwidth as well as the amplifier. In recent years, much effort has
been devoted on the advance of wideband antenna for modern communication systems. Using the
aperture-stacked patch (ASP) antennas increase bandwidth because it utilizes a resonant aperture
with stacked patches [4]. Furthermore, the ASP antennas provide more parameters for designing.
In this paper, we design a broadband AIA in millimeter wave frequency band. In our design,
without any output matching network, the transistor of the power amplifier is connected to the
antenna directly. The both of power amplifier and antenna are designed to operate in wide band-
width. The harmonic balance analysis by ADS simulator is used for designing the power amplifier.
The input impedance of the ASP antenna is adjusted to be optimized output impedance of the
power amplifier, obtained by load pull analysis. Finally, the simulation of the ASP antenna by
HFSS simulator is done that it shows good cross polarization and radiation pattern.
2. CONFIGURATION
The active integrated antenna consists of three parts: the power amplifier, the antenna, and the
integration of these two parts as the AIA. One of the most famous features of the AIA is that
the power amplifier and antenna are treated as a single unit. This is different from the design
method of conventional wireless and communication systems, where the RF front-end and antenna
are separate units, matched to 50-ohm.
In this work, we design the class-A power amplifier and antenna with together as AIA for
broadband application in mm-wave frequency band. The power amplifier as well as the antenna
are designed on Rogers’s TMM 4 substrate with 4 mil substrate height and dielectric constant of
4.5.
2.1. The Power Amplifier
The selected power transistor of amplifier is TRW’s 0.15 µm InGaAs/AlGaAs/GaAs pseudomor-
phic high electron-mobility transistor (pHEMT) that the linear equivalent-circuit parameters and
1502 PIERS Proceedings, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA, March 27–30, 2012

asymmetric Curtice nonlinear model of it, has been given in [5]. To achieve the maximum PAE
and output power, we do load pull analysis at centre frequency of 28 GHz then we optimize input
matching network and load impedance for broadband operation. By adding the antenna instead
of the load of the power amplifier, it maybe limits bandwidth of the power amplifier so before
designing the antenna, we do load sensitivity analysis for the amplifier. In this analysis, we op-
timize input matching network so that, in the broad bandwidth, we reduce load sensitivity over
frequency range. By reducing the load sensitivity, we can design the antenna so much easier than
before because, input impedance of the antenna can change more much range in the bandwidth
The overall schematic of designed broadband class-A power amplifier structure is shown in Fig. 1.
It is seen that the power amplifier is connected to the antenna directly. Element values of power
amplifier and optimized load are given in Table 1.
2.2. The Antenna
The aperture-stacked configuration is selected for antenna in view of its intrinsic advantages in
active device integration as compared to the other feed structures. On the other hand, this structure
has wide bandwidth. In the aperture antenna, the most common technique of controlling the
coupling to the feed line is to change the size of the aperture [4]. But, in the aperture-stacked
patch antenna, the aperture is employed as a radiator so its size cannot be varied alone and the
coupling to the feed line must be controlled in the other method. To achieve this, we use feed
line shaping under aperture. Fig. 2 shows the proposed ASP antenna. It must be notice that the
antenna is designed for the optimized load of the power amplifier in addition to the adequate gain,
radiation efficiency, radiation pattern and, cross-polarization over the bandwidth.

Vgs Vds
C C

TL4 TL10 TL2

TL1
TL3 TL7 TL8 TL9
C Zload=R+jX
Rs C TL12
TL5
TL11
TL6

Figure 1: The schematic of broadband class-A power amplifier.

Table 1: Element values of the power amplifier.

parameters Values parameters Values

W1 2 mil L4 18.6 mil
W2 2 mil L5 29.2 mil
W3 4 mil L6 63.9 mil
W4 4 mil L7 31.6 mil
W5 4 mil L8 42.9 mil
W6 1 mil L9 55.4 mil
W7 2.9 mil L10 49.1 mil
W8 1 mil L11 15.1 mil
W9 4 mil L12 9 mil
W10 4 mil Vgs − 0.15 volt
W11 4 mil Vds 5.5 volt
W12 1 mil Rs 50 ohm
L1 58.6 mil C 10 pf
L2 58.6 mil R 36 ohm
L3 1 mil X 50 ohm
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, KL, MALAYSIA, March 27–30, 2012 1503

3. SIMULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

In this section, we consider simulation results of the power amplifier, antenna and AIA. The part
of amplifier and antenna is discussed separately and then the monolithic AIA is considered.
3.1. The Power Amplifier
The power amplifier is design to operate at the centre frequency of 28 GHz. The harmonic balance
technique by ADS simulator is used for analyzing the circuit. Fig. 3 shows the variation of PAE of
the power amplifier, as function of the input power at the centre frequency of 28 GHz. It is seen
that the input power of 5-dBm nearly is the best bias point.
We use the class-A power amplifier so, it is expected that the power of second and third har-
monics of the load, be low. Fig. 4 depicts the output power and gain of the load respect to the
frequency. A 0.5-dB ripple output power bandwidth of 25% from 24.5 to 31.5 GHz is achieved. The
maximum output power of the amplifier is obtained about 19.94 dBm. The average gain of the
amplifier is 16-dB. Figs. 4 and 5 show the main harmonic of the output power is at least 18-dBm
better than the second and third harmonics over the bandwidth.
Finally, the stability test shows that at least the resistance of the load must be 18-ohm over
bandwidth. In the part of antenna, we must be careful that input impedance of the antenna be
greater than 18-ohm. This condition will secure the system from instability and oscillation.

40

35

30

25
PAE (%)

20

15
(a)
10

0
-15 -10 -5 0 5 10
(b) (c) Pin (dBm)

Figure 2: The ASP antenna. (a) Top view. (b) Figure 3: PAE of the power amplifier respect to the
Side view. (c) The aperture and transmission line of input power at centre frequency of 28 GHz.
antenna. (All units are in mm)

22 18 10 10
Third harmonic
Harmonics of the output power (dBm)

second harmonic
20 17 0 0
Output power (dBm)

18 16
-10 -10
Gain (dB)

16 15
-20 -20
14 14

Output power -30 -30

12 13
Gain

10 12 -40 -40
24 26 28 30 32 24 26 28 30 32
Frequency (GHz) Frequency of main harmonic (GHz)

Figure 4: The output power and gain of amplifier. Figure 5: The amount of second and third harmonics
over the bandwidth range of first harmonic.
1504 PIERS Proceedings, Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA, March 27–30, 2012

80 9

Input impedance of the antenna (ohm) resistance

The peak gain of the antenna (dB)

70 8
reactance

60
7
50
6
40
5
30

20 4

10 3
24 26 28 30 32 20 25 30 35
Frequency (GHz) Frequency (GHz)

Figure 6: The input impedance of the ASP antenna. Figure 7: The peak gain of the ASP antenna.

0
0

-10 -10

-20 -20
E-plane (dB)

Co-polarization
H-plane (dB)

-30
Cross-polarization
-30

Co-polarization -40
-40 Cross-polarization
-50

-50 -60

-60 -70
-150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150 -150 -100 -50 0 50 100 150
Angle (deg) Angle (deg)

Figure 8: The E-plane of ASP antenna. Figure 9: The H-plane of ASP antenna.

20

18

16
Load power (dBm)

14

12

10

6
23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33
Frequency (GHz)

Figure 10: Input impedance of the antenna calcu- Figure 11: The load power of AIA.
lated by CST and HFSS simulators.

3.2. The Antenna

We try to design the antenna for the optimized load but this is not practical so we did sensitivity
analysis to design the antenna easier. Ansoft HFSS is used for simulating the antenna. Fig. 6 shows
the input impedance of ASP antenna. The input impedance of antenna is not the optimized load
Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium Proceedings, KL, MALAYSIA, March 27–30, 2012 1505

of the amplifier so the bandwidth of amplifier will reduce. Also it is seen that the input impedance
of antenna is in stable area of the bandwidth of the amplifier from 24.5 to 31.5 GHz.
In addition to the input impedance of antenna, the radiation specifications of designed ASP
antenna must be acceptable. Figs. 7, 8 and 9 show the peak gain, E-plane and H-plane of the
antenna, respectively. The peak gain is suitable over the bandwidth of the amplifier. A good
radiation pattern is obtained in E-plane and H-plane. Cross-polarization in the 3-dB beamwidth
is 44 dB below the co-polarization in the E-plane and 45 dB below the co-polarization in the H-
plane for the ASP antenna. Finally, as shown in Fig. 10, we compared input impedance of the
antenna calculated by CST and HFSS simulators, showing good agreement.
3.3. The AIA
The AIA consists of the designed power amplifier and antenna. Due to the input impedance of
the antenna is not the optimum of load impedance of amplifier, the bandwidth of amplifier will
decrease. Fig. 11 shows the bandwidth of AIA. A 2-dB ripple bandwidth of 25% is achieved.
4. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a broadband active integrated antenna in millimeter wave was presented. The power
amplifier was design to operate in broad bandwidth. The transistor of the amplifier was connected
to the antenna directly. The load pull analysis was applied to optimize the load impedance. We
did load sensitivity analysis for the amplifier thus designed the antenna so much easier. The gain,
radiation pattern and cross-polarization of the antenna were adequate in the bandwidth. A 2-dB
bandwidth of 25% was achieved. In next step, we intend to fabricate our designed AIA in the
future.
REFERENCES
1. Karnfelt, C., P. Hallbjorner, H. Zirath, and A. Alping, “High gain active microstrip antenna
for 60-GHz WLAN/WPAN Applications,” IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory & Tech., Vol. 54,
No. 6, 2593–2603, June 2006.
2. Kim, H., I. J. Yoon, and Y. J. Yoon, “A novel fully integrated transmitter front-end with high
power-added efficiency,” IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory & Tech., Vol. 53, No. 10, 3206–3214,
October 2005.
3. Keller, M. G., D. Roscoe, Y. M. M. Antar, and A. Ittipiboon, “Active millimetre-wave aperture-
coupled microstrip patch antenna array,” Electronic Letters, Vol. 31, No. 1, 2–4, January 2006.
4. Targonski, S. D., R. B. Waterhouse, and D. M. Pozar, “Design of wide-band aperture-stacked
patch microstrip antennas,” IEEE Trans. Antenna & Propagation, Vol. 46, No. 9, 1245–1251,
September 1998.
5. Siddiqui, M. K., A. K. Sharma, L. G. Callejo, and R. Lai, “A high-power and high-efficiency
monolithic power amplifier at 28 GHz for LMDS applications,” IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory
& Tech., Vol. 46, No. 12, 2226–2232, December 1998.