Development of low-loss millimeter-wave antennas on fluorine substrate using electro-fine-forming fabrication

Ito, Naoki*; Mase, Atsushi*; Seko, Noriaki; Tamada, Masao; Sakata, Eiji*; Kogi, Yuichiro*

Proceedings of Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference 2006 (APMC 2006), Vol.1 (CD-ROM), p.2031 - 2033, 2006/12

Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) has many desirable properties for substrates of millimeter-wave planar antennas such as low dielectric constant and loss tangent. However, it has weak adhesion to various metals. Surface treatment of PTFE via radiation-induced graft polymerization was carried out to improve the adhesion. The peel adhesion strength of the PTFE/Cu was attained to be 10.3 N/cm by the treatment. The dielectric function of grafted-PTFE remained almost unchanged after the graft polymerization. The design and fabrication of millimeter-wave antennas on the treated PTFE substrates have been performed using electro-fine-forming (EF2) technology.