A Novel Fully-Automatic 3D Radiation Pattern
Measurement Setup for 60 GHz Probe-fed Antennas
Diane Titz, Fabien Ferrero, Cyril Luxey, Gilles Jacquemod
LEAT-CNRS
University of Nice-Sophia-Antipolis
Valbonne, France
diane.titz@unice.fr
Abstract— In this paper, we present a fully automatic radiation
pattern measurement setup for 60 GHz probe-fed antennas. First, a
detailed description of the mechanical and the RF parts of the set-up
is provided with a special focus of a dedicated calibration procedure.
Then, the 3D radiation pattern measurements of several antennas are
presented to validate the calibration procedure and demonstrate the
accuracy of the setup. The first measurement of a low-directivity
monopole antenna etched on a glass substrate illustrates the
usefulness of measuring probe-fed antennas instead of connector-fed
antennas at 60 GHz. The second measurement of several moderate
and high directivity Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic (LTCC)
patch-type antennas demonstrates the possibility to accurately
measure the radiation of flip-chip mounted structures. The last
example describes the radiation pattern measurement of a folded-
loop antenna etched on a High-Resistivity (HR) Silicon-On-Insulator
(SOI) substrate. These last technologies represent major solutions for
the market of millimeter-wave antennas for W-HDMI-type
communications that’s why guidelines and advices are given to
handle such difficult measurement with acceptable accuracy.
Keywords-Radiation pattern; gain measurement; integrated
antennas; LTCC antennas; probe-fed antennas
I. INTRODUCTION
The worldwide unlicensed band at 60 GHz is of special
interest for Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN)
applications [1]. This frequency band has much more spectrum
available (8 GHz) than the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands daily used for
current Wi-Fi products. Consequently, such a large bandwidth
allows setting wider channels to support faster transmission
speed. Several 60GHz standards defining new possible
applications have been recently issued [2] and several possible
antenna implementations have been studied and published. To
measure the radiation pattern of such antennas, some solutions
exist. In [3] and [4], only 2-D radiation pattern cuts can be
measured over a 180 degree range. In [5], the authors present
the measured maximum gain of their on-chip antenna but not
the radiation pattern. In [6-7], the radiation pattern
measurement can only be achieved in limited cut-planes and a
manual rotation of the receiving antenna is required. Moreover,
none of these papers concentrate on the antenna feeding
technique and possible specific arrangements of the setup
regarding the antenna-technology which is of paramount
importance at 60 GHz. In those papers, the calibration
978-1-4244-9561-0/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE 3121
procedure is very often missing as well as the estimation of the
accuracy.
In this paper, we propose to precisely describe a fully
automatic measurement setup, as in [8], able to almost measure
the 3D radiation pattern of probe-fed antennas in the 60 GHz
frequency band. We also achieve a special focus on the
calibration procedure. A first comparison between the radiation
pattern measurements of the same on-glass antenna firstly fed
with a V-connector and then with a probe is achieved. We
especially demonstrate the necessity to avoid large metallic
pieces like the V-connector in the vicinity of the antenna to be
measured. To illustrate the 3D capabilities of this setup and its
accuracy, several integrated probe-fed antennas with low,
moderate and high directivity; fabricated in Low temperature
Co-fired Ceramics (LTCC) and High-Resistivity Silicon-On-
Insulator (HR SOI) processes are then measured. When
horizontally positioned and probe-fed from their top side, all
these last antennas mainly radiate in the back side direction.
Both technologies represent major solutions for the market of
millimeter-wave antennas for W-HDMI-type communications
that’s why guidelines and advices are given to handle such
difficult measurements with acceptable accuracy.
II. MEASUREMENT SETUP
A. Description of the Setup
A schematic view of the setup is presented in Fig. 1. A
15GHz signal is generated by a synthesizer, then amplified and
multiplied by four. At the output of this millimeter-wave
source, the 12-dBm 60 GHz signal is transmitted to the probe
via an adapter and a semi-rigid V-cable. A special feature of
the set-up is the possibility to feed the Antenna Under Test
(AUT) with a microelectronic probe (Cascade Microtech i67-
A-GSG-100 in our case). At the receive side, a mixer is directly
connected to a standard gain horn antenna to down-convert the
received 60 GHz signal. This is again a special feature to avoid
using a millimeter-wave LNA connected to the horn. This
option would have been problematic to properly move the
receive horn and therefore measure the 3D patterns with a good
accuracy. Indeed, this special arrangement allows a low
frequency signal to be conveyed into flexible cables instead of
rigid cables, enabling us to easily move the mechanical parts
during the measurements.
AP-S/URSI 2011

Fig. 1. Schematic view of the radiation setup.
The mechanical part is one of the most innovative pieces of
this setup. Two rotating arms made in aluminum are used to
scan the quasi-3D sphere around the AUT, the second, being
sufficiently rigid to both hold the mixer and the receive horn
antenna. To comply with the far field criterion at 60 GHz, the
distance between the receive horn and the AUT is chosen to be
approximately 20 cm. Therefore, we are able to measure
antennas with a largest dimension D being 2.2 cm. As the
transmission distance is small, we are able to measure antennas
with a quite low gain and poor efficiency. Another important
consideration, to be able to accurately measure the radiation
below the substrate of the AUT, is to get rid of the metallic
chuck usually used in microelectronics probe-based
measurements [7] because such a large reflective material
strongly affect the radiation. Our system uses specially
fabricated FR4 or foam AUT holders which are screwed to a
special carrier fabricated in rigid polyurethane material. This
carrier greatly helps in maintaining the metallic positioner as
far as possible from the area to be scanned (Fig. 2). This setup
fits in less than 1m3 and the synthesizer, spectrum analyzer, the
rotation and the translation of the arms trough servo-motors are
all controlled by a computer (GPIB and serial port), using a
custom-made Labview code. The total 3D measurement of one
antenna is completed in 2 hours.
Fig. 2. Picture of the 3D positioner (metal), the rigid polyurethane custom-
made carrier (blue) and a special FR4 holder of an LTCC antenna (measured in
section III.B).
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B. Calibration Procedure
The calibration procedure and the associated accuracy of
such a setup are not trivial for 60 GHz measurements. In classic
anechoic chamber, the calibration is usually achieved with two
reference antennas. Designing a reference antenna at 60 GHz is
quite challenging so we decided to implement a different sort
of calibration. We directly connected the V-cable to the
receiving mixer using an adapter instead of connecting it to the
AUT via a probe (Fig. 3).
The overall losses in the V-cable, couplers, adapters, mixer,
LO and IF cables are deduced from a simple transmission
measurement knowing the output of the amplifier (Pa) and the
IF power displayed on a spectrum analyzer (Pr). The link
budget is used to compute the gain of any measured AUT. This
is done with the help of the Friis Equation given in dB in (1)
where Gr and G are respectively the gains of the receive horn
and the AUT, and PL the free-space loss defined by (2). In (2),
d is the distance between the AUT and horn antenna.
Pr = Gr + G + PL + Pa (1)
4π d 2
PL = 10 log10 ( ) (2)
λ0
The horn gain and the losses of the probe are not included
into the overall losses computed for the calibration. Therefore,
we incorporated the values of the losses given by the
manufacturers. Every component of the RF chain was also
measured separately to verify its insertion loss and estimate
some uncertainty. The combination of all these numbers gives
an overall uncertainty of ± 1 dB for the computed realized gain
of any antenna. At these frequencies, it is very difficult to
improve this accuracy due to the difficulty to measure the exact
losses of each RF block. From the best knowledge of the
authors, this is the first time such a deep study of the accuracy
of a millimeter-wave radiation pattern setup for probe-fed
antennas is achieved.
Fig. 3. Schematic of the chosen calibration method.
III. MEASUREMENTS OF 60 GHZ ANTENNAS
A. On-Glass Monopole Antenna
The on-glass monopole antenna has been first presented in
[9]. A picture of the connector-fed radiator can be seen in Fig.
4 where it seems obvious that the large metallic connector will
badly influence the radiation of the monopole antenna.
 cavity-hole was drilled into the FR4 holders to be able to leave
free this radiation area.

Fig. 4. Picture of the connector-fed antenna.

Fig. 5a shows the simulated 3-D radiation pattern of this Fig. 6. LTCC antennas on FR4 holders. (a) front side. (b) back side.
antenna with the help of HFSS. A monopole-like radiation is
obtained with a deep-null in the direction of the main axis of Simulations and gain measurements are compared in Fig. 7-
the antenna. The measurement of the connector-fed antenna is 9 in two different planes where =0° corresponds to the vertical
depicted in Fig. 5b. It can be seen a lots of strong ripples in this direction below the structure where the gain should be
measurement attributed to the radiation of the V connector. maximum. The simulated maximum gains for the patch, the
First, the omnidirectional coverage is made narrower which EBG antenna and the array are respectively 5.4, 7.1, and 10.9
increases the gain of the main beam of the AUT. Second, the dBi. The measured maximum gains are 6.4, 7.9, and 10.2 dBi.
deep field null visible in Fig. 5a in the y direction is changed A very good agreement is obtained showing the accuracy of the
into an additional beam with a magnitude of the same order as setup when measuring electric fields below the 3D positioner
the one of the main beam. These effects are due to the fact that and the polyurethane carrier.
the whole radiating structure is now much larger than 0
because flowing currents on the outer parts of the connector are
also participating to the whole radiation mechanism. The
measurement of the same antenna, this time probe-fed is given
in Fig. 5c. A much better agreement with the simulated pattern
is now revealed. Even if small ripples, with lower magnitude
than before, are still measured, the deep null characterizing the
on-axis radiation of a monopole is accurately measured. This
experiment indeed shows the strong interest of being able to
measure probe-fed antennas rather than connector-fed antennas
at 60 GHz to avoid significantly deteriorating the performance
of the AUT and therefore enhance the accuracy of the measure. Fig. 7. LTCC patch gain radiation pattern in two planes.

Fig. 8. LTCC EBG patch gain radiation pattern in two planes.

Fig. 5. Measured and simulated gain radiation patterns of the test antenna. (a)
Simulation from HFSS. (b) Measurement of the connector-fed antenna. (c)
Measurement of the probe-fed antenna.

B. LTCC Antennas
The LTCC antennas have been described in [10] and [11].
The first is a patch antenna. The second uses EBG cells to
focus the radiation of a single patch. The third is a high-gain
patch-array. FR4 holders were specially fabricated (Fig. 6). As
these antennas are fed from the top side of the LTCC substrate
but radiate from the back side (flip-chip configuration), a
Fig. 9. LTCC patch array gain radiation pattern in two planes.
C. High Resistivity Silicon-On-Insulator Antenna
The folded-slot antenna etched on a HR SOI substrate has
already been presented in [7]. On-chip silicon antennas are very
challenging to measure because they radiate most of the

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incoming power through the silicon substrate (high permittivity
value εr • 11.9). In [7], the measured maximum gain of the
folded-slot antenna was reported but it should be warned that
the antenna was maintained using a Rexolite chuck which
®
resulted in a completely distorted radiation pattern. Moreover,
the measurement below the antenna was not possible in the
used setup. In Fig. 10, we present a picture of the AUT placed
on a novel improved holder entirely made of foam material
(εr•1.05). This is another important advice in order to reduce at
a maximum the impact of any material placed below the AUT
and therefore not modify the radiation of on-chip antennas. In
addition, it can be seen that nylon screws were used to maintain
the AUT holder on the polyurethane carrier.
For ease of comparison between simulations and
measurements, the radiation patterns are plotted in the same
hemisphere containing the X axis in the simulation.
Measurement and simulation results are compared in Fig. 11.
The pattern is a 3D rectangular plot viewed from the top (Z-
axis). Identical field shapes are observed: maxima (red) and
minima (blue) are located approximately at the same
coordinates (dashed circles on the figure). The maximum gain
in the considered hemisphere at 60 GHz is 1.33 dBi at (θ, φ) =
(170°, 112°), really close to the simulated one (1.35 dBi) which
shows an accurate and satisfactory measurement. Moreover,
the simulated maximum realized gain is 3.5 dBi and the
maximum measured one is 3.9 dBi. They both occur outside of
the plotted pattern in Fig. 11. This last measurement proves a
really small influence of the microelectronic probes: the
measurement of the radiation of the probe in an equivalent
configuration can be found in [9]. It should be noted that the
simulation results have been performed including the probe and
the closest RF microelectronic circuits of the antenna. This is
also very important at 60 GHz for on-chip antennas.
Fig. 10. HR SOI Folded-slot antenna on foam holder.
Fig. 11. Top view of the 3D rectangular plot of the measured and simulated
radiation patterns of the HR SOI folded-slot antenna at 60 GHz.
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CONCLUSION
In this paper, we presented a radiation pattern measurement
setup at 60 GHz with a special focus on the calibration
procedure. This setup allows the measurement of the 3D
radiation pattern of probe-fed antennas and especially an
accurate measure below the AUT because a special foam
holder instead of a metallic chuck is employed to maintain the
antenna. Measurements of various antennas fabricate in
different technologies were presented. We first demonstrated
the necessity to probe-feed antennas at 60 GHz. Then, we
accurately measured antenna configurations mostly radiating in
the backside direction of their substrate proving the necessity to
be able to measure in such direction. These technologies
represent major solutions for the market of millimeter-wave
antennas for W-HDMI-type communications that’s why
guidelines and advices were given to handle such difficult
measurements with acceptable accuracy.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank the CIMPACA design
platform and the CREMANT for their financial and technical
support, Aalto University, VTT Center and ST
Microelectronics Crolles for kindly supplying some of the
measured antennas.
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