Micromachined 60 GHz postsupported patch antenna with flip-chip interconnect

This letter presents the design of a micromachined patch antenna operating at 60-GHz band. The radiating patch and the feedline network are designed on the quartz glass (SiO₂) and silicon (Si) substrate layers, respectively. An air gap, which is supported by four nonconductive posts and one solder ball, is added between the two substrate layers to reduce dielectric loss. The utilization of transparent quartz glass is helpful in alignment, and the feedline network is universal in patch array design. A 1 × 2 patch array is designed to verify the concept of array design. The measured -10 dB bandwidth of the proposed array is 2.7 GHz (56.5-59.2 GHz).