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Compact millimeter-wave active integrated antenna based on a highly compatible antenna-in-package solution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2025

Zhi-Xia Du Open the ORCID record for Zhi-Xia Du [Opens in a new window] ,
Zhenming Pan ,
Jianqiang Chen ,
Bo Sun ,
Zhihao Zhang  and
Chunbing Guo
Zhi-Xia Du
Affiliation:
School of Integrated Circuits, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves, Nanjing, China
Zhenming Pan
Affiliation:
School of Integrated Circuits, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves, Nanjing, China
Jianqiang Chen
Affiliation:
School of Integrated Circuits, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
Bo Sun
Affiliation:
School of Integrated Circuits, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
Zhihao Zhang*
Affiliation:
School of Integrated Circuits, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
Chunbing Guo
Affiliation:
School of Integrated Circuits, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, China
*
Corresponding author: Zhihao Zhang; Email: zhihaozhang@gdut.edu.cn
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Abstract

In this work, a compact active integrated antenna based on a highly compatible antenna-in-package (AiP) solution is proposed. It consists of two sections, namely, a cover plate integrated with an antenna and a package backplane that carries a GaN power amplifier (PA) die. The proposed AiP solution not only provides efficient interconnection between the antenna and the GaN PA die while providing physical shielding, but also provides impedance compensation for the die to improve the matching performance. Besides, a plated through hole array is designed inside the package backplane to significantly improve heat dissipation performance. The proposed AiP solution is compatible with radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) dies with different pin arrangements. Two prototypes are fabricated and measured for validation. The first prototype is the active integrated antenna based on the GaN PA, which shows an impedance bandwidth of 25.7–28.7 GHz, a peak gain of 31 dBi, and a dimension of 8 mm × 8 mm × 1.7 mm. Another prototype is based on a GaN front-end module (FEM) die integrating the PA and low noise amplifier, which demonstrates better EVM and ACPR than the conventional design with separate antenna and FEM.

Keywords

active integrated antennaantenna-in-package (AiP)compatibilityheat dissipation
Type
Research Paper
Information
International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies , First View , pp. 1 - 10
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press in association with The European Microwave Association.

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