volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

A compact broadband folded dipole antenna element with a ball grid array packaging is proposed in this letter. The compact antenna element is fabricated on a low-cost FR4 substrate consisting of only one dielectric layer. The solder balls are mounted on the square ground metal plane of the antenna element to form the ball grid array (BGA) packaging, which allows the antenna element to be surface mounted with other surface-mount devices (SMDs). Furthermore, ball grid array packaging has great potential for minimizing the size of antenna elements. The dimension of the proposed antenna element is only 6 mm × 6 mm × 1.6 mm. Parameter analysis shows that the solder balls have little effect on antenna performance. The proposed folded dipole antenna element is fed by a 50 Ω grounded coplanar waveguide (GCPW) transmission line on the evaluation board. The antenna prototype has been designed, analyzed, and manufactured. Measured results of the prototype show that the -10 dB impedance bandwidth is 45.4 % (22.3-35.4 GHz), and the peak gain achieves 6.62 dBi at 35 GHz. The measurement results show that the proposed antenna element has great potential for the 5G millimeter wave application.

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Dr. Xiubo Liu

Dr. Wei Zhang

Dr. Dongning Hao

Professor Yanyan Liu