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An approach suitable for millimeter-wave dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) arrays is presented. The methodology involves fabricating precise cavities in acrylic templates and filling them with composite dielectric materials to create a monolithic polymer-based DRA (PRA) array layer. The excitation feed lines are fabricated on a separate substrate layer and the two layers are aligned and bonded together to form the PRA antenna array module. The impact of the acrylic frame on the PRA performance is analyzed through simulations. A four-element array operating at 60 GHz is realized to demonstrate the approach. The performance is characterized through simulation and also experimentally verified. The array offers a wide 12% impedance bandwidth at 60 GHz and broadside radiation with 10.5-dBi realized gain and stable radiation patterns. The use of polymer-based materials provides opportunities for cost-effective volume fabrication using molding techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Novel photoresist-based artificial bulk dielectrics with tall-embedded metal grids are investigated and their radiation characteristics are studied in detail. The embedded metal grid substantially increases (around six times) the effective permittivity of the low permittivity base photoresist material, and enables excitation with a simple direct microstrip feed to radiate effectively at frequencies similar to a high-permittivity dielectric resonator antenna (DRA). Moreover, the grid changes the near fields inside the resonator and introduces novel modes that are completely different than those of usual DRAs. A set of artificial resonator antennas is designed, lithographically fabricated, and measured to demonstrate the new modes resonating at 17 and 19 GHz with 2% and 6% bandwidth and 7.6 and 6.6 dB broadside gain, respectively, with suitable cross-polarization levels of better than - 20\;\textdB. These new modes do not appear simultaneously, and can be excited separately by varying the length of the microstrip feed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Compact reactive lumped-element circuits fabricated using a single thick metal-layer deep X-ray lithography process are presented. Vertically oriented capacitive features are combined with inductive features in > 0.25-mm-thick metal layers to realize lumped-element filter and coupler microstructures operating at up to 12 GHz. Measurements for separate thick metal reactive structures are also presented, including variable capacitors and single-turn square loop inductors. Devices feature impressive vertical structure, including a 77:1 aspect ratio, 1.3-\mum-wide cantilever gap structure in 100-\mum-thick photoresist. A 0.6-pF capacitor has Q-factors of 95 at 5.6 GHz and 214 at 3.5 GHz, and a structurally compatible 1.2-nH loop inductor has a Q-factor of 47 at 6.8 GHz and a self-resonant frequency of 18.8 GHz. Together, these types of devices could form the building blocks for various integrated reactive lumped-element-based circuits. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]