Low-Cost 60 GHz Printed Yagi Antenna Array Zouhair Briqech Electrical and Computer Engineering Concordia University Montreal, QC, Canada, H3G 1M8 z_briqec@encs.concordia.ca Abdelrazik Sebak KACST Technology Innovation Center in RFTONICS PSATRI, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 11421 abdo@ece.concordia.ca Abstract—A low-cost, and broadband 60 GHz microstrip Yagi array antenna is presented. It consists of rectangular microstrip antenna with parasitic patches. It has gain of 10.3 dB achieved at 60 GHz, a high total radiation efficiency of ~96%, and an impedance bandwidth of ~19.4%, which covers the entire unlicensed 60-GHz millimeter-wave frequency range. With these features, this antenna is suitable for wireless communication, and imaging applications. I. INTRODUCTION Millimeter–wave (MMW) antennas are the next generation of antennas for indoor high-data-rate wireless communication systems, especially for the unlicensed V-band around 60 GHz [1]. In most cases, the V-band is used for short range wireless applications, mainly due to the 13-dB/km attenuation caused by absorption in air [2]. In wireless personal area network (WPAN) [3], antenna arrays are fundamental in order to suppress unwanted interference. The proposed antenna design is based on the general concept of printed microstrip Yagi antenna array [4], [5]. The end-fire array Yagi antenna, with advantage of its high power efficiency, is suitable for compact integration with monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) that increases the gain and directivity of the antenna. The microstrip Yagi consists of a rectangular patch that capacitively excites the parasitic element patches that in turn are capacitive-coupled to one another. To enhance coupling between elements it is necessary to make use of substrates with low dielectric constant. Furthermore, to enhance the transition energy between the elements, their spacing must be optimized and depends on the wavelength. II. ANTENNA CONFIGURATION The configuration of the proposed antenna is illustrated in Fig. 1 (a) and Fig. 1 (b). The antenna consists of two layers; each one contains reflector patch, driven patch, and two directive element patches. In the first layer, the reflector patch is split into two reflector patches to make enough space for the feed-line to the reach the driven patch. Director1 and director2 contain two elements and are positioned in a way that optimizes the matching impedance and maximizes the gain. The Yagi array in the first layer excites a second Yagi array in the top layer. The substrate of the Layer1 is 254 µm thick (h 1 = 254 µm) and has low dielectric constant (ε rp =2.2), whereas the substrate of the layer2 is 635 µm thick (h 2 = 635 µm) and has the same dielectric constant (ε rp =2.2).The antenna (layer1) is illustrated in Fig. 1 (a) and its dimensions are as follows: the length and width of the substrate of layer2 (W x and L y1 ) are 8015 x 10687µm the length and width of the reflectors (R L1 and R w1 ) are 534 x 1073 µm, the length and width of the driven patch element (L 1 and W 1 ) is 1420 x 1600 µm, and the length and width of the director1 (L a1 and W a1 ) are 1400x 1350 µm and director2 elements (Lb 1 and Wb 1 ) are 1400x 1120 µm. The distance between the elements (g 1 ) is 140 µm. Furthermore, the distances between the director1 and director2 elements are represented by S a1 and S b1 are 240 µm and 1400 µm, respectively. La1 Sa1 Lb1 g1 g1 L1 RL1 Rw1 g1 100Ω 70.7 50Ω W1 Wb1 Wa1 Sb1 Ly Wx x y z h 2 Wb 2 Lb 2 Director2 Wa 2 L 2 W 2 R L2 Rw 2 t Sa 2 Sb 2 ε r2 ε r1 Driven Director1 Reflector Wx Ly 2 La 2 Layer2 Layer1 g 2 g 2 g 2 h 1 y z x z x y Figure 1. Configuration of the proposed antenna (a) top view of layer1, (b) top view of layer2, and side view of the antenna (b) (a) 978-1-4673-0462-7/12/$31.00 ©2012 IEEE