A Novel Wideband Transition from LTCC Laminated Waveguide to Air-Filled Rectangular Waveguide for W-band Applications

Micromachines (Basel). 2022 Dec 25;14(1):52. doi: 10.3390/mi14010052.

Abstract

In this paper, a novel wideband transition from a laminated waveguide (LWG) to an air-filled rectangular waveguide (RWG) is proposed for millimeter-wave integration solutions based on multilayer low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) technology. The integrated transition cavity is divided into several resonators by introducing five grounded via holes. Due to the magnetic wall existing in the symmetry plane, the equivalent circuit of the proposed transition can be simplified as a three-pole filter model to explain the working mechanism with wideband performance. A W-band integrated LWG-to-RWG transition is designed as an example using LTCC technology. Two back-to-back prototypes with different lengths are fabricated and measured. A measured 25.7% bandwidth from 76 GHz to 101 GHz can be achieved for return loss better than 14 dB. The average insertion loss of a single transition is about 0.5 dB. The compact structure and wideband performance give it potential in high-density millimeter-wave and terahertz packaging.

Keywords: W-band; air-filled rectangular waveguide; laminated waveguide; low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC); transition; wideband.