UPD Printed 140 GHz Split Ring Resonator Antenna for Device-to-Device Communication

This paper presents the first ever printed antenna using ultra-precise dispensing (UPD) technology from XTPL, to the best of the author's knowledge. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates a solution to overcome the limitations of traditional printed circuit board (PCB) technology for high-frequency systems, by combining well-established PCB technology with a novel additive manufacturing method. In this work, we show the design, manufacturing, and measurement of a 140 GHz split ring resonator (SRR) antenna. The feeding structure and the matching network are realized by a wet-etching process on a commercially available PCB material. The actual radiating resonators with a minimum feature size of 12 μm are 3D-printed using UPD technology. A deviation to the designed dimensions of less than 2 μm is achieved. The printed antenna achieves a return loss better 10dB from 119.8 GHz up to 155.4 GHz, resulting in a bandwidth of 35.6 GHz, corresponding to a relative bandwidth of 25.43 %. A maximum gain of 4.5 dBi was measured at 136.5 GHz. This work demonstrates the co-integration of conventional, low-cost PCB technologies with an advanced additive manufacturing technique to achieve mass production capability for high-frequency systems, which plays a critical role in the development of Device-to-Device (D2D) communications systems aiming for the mass market.