Millimeter and submillimeter-wave integrated horn antenna Schottky receivers.

Abstract

Fundamental Schottky-diode mixers are currently used in most millimeter-wave receivers above 100GHz. The mixers use either a whisker-contacted diode or a planar Schottky diode suspended in a machined waveguide with an appropriate RF matching network. However, waveguide mounts are very expensive to machine for frequencies above 200GHz. Also, the whisker-contacted structure is not compatible with integrated mixers which represent the leading technology used for millimeter- and submillimeter-wave applications such as plasma diagnostics imaging arrays, radiometers, and anti-collision radars. In this work, a novel quasi-integrated horn antenna has been used for the receiver antenna. This antenna has a high gain and a high Gaussian coupling efficiency (97%), similar to machined scalar feed horns, but with the advantage of being easily fabricated up to at least 1.5THz. The quasi-integrated horn antenna is based on the integrated horn antenna structure. The integrated horn antenna consists of a pyramidal cavity with a 70$\sp\circ$ flare angle etched anisotropically in silicon. The cavity focuses the incoming energy on dipole-probe suspended on a membrane inside the horn. The integrated horn antenna does not suffer from dielectric losses or substrate mode losses since the feeding dipole antenna is integrated on a very thin dielectric layer. The mixer circuit, along with the feed dipole, are both integrated on the membrane wafer. The mixer diode is the University of Virginia surface channel planar diode which has a low parasitic capacitance. The diode is epoxied directly at the dipole apex without the need for an RF matching network, and with no mixer tunning required. At 92GHz,the DSB antenna-mixer conversion loss and noise temperature are 5.5dB and 770K, respectively. This represents the best reported results to this date for a quasi-optical mixer with a planar diode, at room temperature. At 335GHz, the DSB antenna-mixer noise temperature is 1750K and it is within 1dB of the best tuned waveguide mixer noise temperature using a similar planar diode. The low cost of fabrication and the simplicity of the design makes it ideal for use in millimeter and submillimeter-wave applications. Finally, a millimeter-wave dual-polarized 5 x 5 integrated horn antennas imaging array has been designed and fabricated. Each integrated horn antenna element in the array has two orthogonal dipoles integrated at the center of the membrane with a novel feeding structure. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)