Performance Investigations with Antipodal Linear Tapered Slot Antenna on 60GHz Radio Link in a Narrow Hallway Environment

The performance of wireless communication systems is predominantly dependent on propagation environment and respective radiating antennas. Due to the shorter wavelength at Millimeter Wave (MmW) frequencies, the propagation loss through surroundings in indoor environments is typically very high. To improve the channel capacity and to reduce inter-user interference, a high gain directional antenna is desired at MmW frequencies. Traditional antennas used in MmW devices are not suitable for low-cost commercial devices due to their heavy, bulky and expensive configurations. This paper focuses on design and development of a very compact (44.61mm × 9.93mm × 0.381mm) high gain Antipodal Linear Tapered Slot Antenna (ALTSA) utilizing Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) technology at 60GHz. Received signal strength (RSS), path loss (PL) and capacity are studied for MmW based wireless applications utilizing electromagnetic (EM) computations and Radio Frequency (RF) experiments in narrow hallway environment.