398 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 59, NO.
2, FEBRUARY 2011
Millimeter-Wave Microstrip Comb-Line Antenna
Using Reflection-Canceling Slit Structure
Yuki Hayashi, Kunio Sakakibara, Senior Member, IEEE, Morihiko Nanjo, Shingo Sugawa,
Nobuyoshi Kikuma, Senior Member, IEEE, and Hiroshi Hirayama, Member, IEEE
AbstractA microstrip comb-line antenna is developed in the
millimeter-wave band. When the element spacing is one guide
wavelength for the broadside beam in the traveling-wave excita-
tion, reflections from all the radiating elements are synthesized
in phase. Therefore, the return loss increases significantly. Fur-
thermore, re-radiation from elements due to the reflection wave
degrades the design accuracy for the required radiation pattern.
We propose the way to improve the reflection characteristic of
the antenna with arbitrary beam directions including strictly
a broadside direction. To suppress the reflection, we propose a
reflection-canceling slit structure installed on the feeding line
around each radiating element. A 27-element linear array antenna
with a broadside beam is developed at 76.5 GHz. To confirm the
feasibility of the simple design procedure, the performance is
evaluated through the measurement in the millimeter-wave band.
Index TermsArray antenna, comb-line antenna, microstrip
antenna, millimeter-wave.
I. INTRODUCTION
ILLIMETER-WAVE antennas have been developed for
M various applications such as broadband and high-speed
wireless communication systems and automotive radar systems
[1], [2]. Microstrip antennas are more advantageous than other
millimeter-wave antennas in terms of its low profile and low
cost. On the other hand, the feeding loss due to the transmis-
sion loss of the microstrip line is a significant problem in the
array feeding. Therefore, microstrip array antennas are suitable
for relatively low-gain applications such as a subarray of digital
beam forming (DBF) systems [3]. A comb-line feeding system
is effective for relatively low loss when compared with other mi-
crostrip patch array antennas fed by parallel or ordinary series
feeding [4], [5].
When the element spacing is just one guide wavelength for
the broadside beam in the traveling-wave excitation, reflections
from all the radiating elements are synthesized in phase at the
Manuscript received August 21, 2009; revised March 26, 2010; accepted
September 16, 2010. Date of publication December 03, 2010; date of current
version February 02, 2011.
Y. Hayashi was with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering,
Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya 466-8555, Japan. He is now with
Toshiba Corporation, Tokyo 105 8001, Japan.
K. Sakakibara, N. Kikuma, and H. Hirayama are with the Department of
Computer Science and Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya
466-8555, Japan (e-mail: sakaki@nitech.ac.jp).
M. Nanjo was with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering,
Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya 466-8555, Japan. He is now with
Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd., Shizuoka 438 8501, Japan.
S. Sugawa with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering,
Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya 466-8555, Japan. He is now with
Honda Motor Co., Ltd., Saitama 335 0031, Japan.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TAP.2010.2096180
0018-926X/$26.00 2010 IEEE
feeding point. Therefore, the return loss increases significantly.
Furthermore, re-radiation from the element due to the reflection
wave affects the radiation pattern of the array antenna, which de-
grades the design accuracy. Matching characteristics have been
improved in the conventional design by beam-tilting of several
degrees, where reflections from all the elements are canceled
out of phase at the input port [6], [7]. Beam directions to cancel
reflections in the microstrip line are limited in some specific an-
gles, where the broadside direction is identical to the nulls of the
radiation pattern. The reflection-canceling pair element could be
one of the solutions for array antennas to reduce reflection from
each element. However, the element radiation pattern of the pair
structure forms a cardioid directivity whose peak is the endfire
direction [8]. The sidelobe levels increase in the endfire direc-
tions, resulting in an asymmetric radiation pattern. Furthermore,
the mutual coupling between elements in the pair significantly
reduces the total radiation from the elements, which must be
taken into account in the design. Hence, a novel radiating ele-
ment that can suppress the reflection without affecting the ele-
ment radiation is required.
We investigate how to improve the reflection characteristic of
the antenna with arbitrary beam directions, including strictly a
broadside direction. To suppress the reflection from each ele-
ment, we propose a reflection-canceling slit structure installed
on the feeding line around each radiating element [9]. The con-
figuration of the antenna is described in Section II. The simple
design procedure is produced in Section III. To confirm the
feasibility of the proposed simple design procedure, a 27-ele-
ment linear array antenna with a broadside beam is developed
at 76.5 GHz. The measured antenna performance is reported in
Section IV.
II. CONFIGURATION
A microstrip comb-line antenna is composed of several rect-
angular radiating elements that are directly attached to a straight
feeding line printed on a dielectric substrate (Fluorocarbon resin
film, thickness , relative dielectric constant
and loss tangent ) with a backed ground plane
as shown in Fig. 1. The width of the feeding microstrip line
is 0.30 mm. The characteristic impedance of this line is 60 .
The radiating elements are inclined 45 degrees from the feeding
microstrip line for the polarization requirement of automotive
radar systems [2]. The radiating elements with length and
width are arranged on the both sides of the feeding line,
which forms an interleaved arrangement in a one-dimensional
array. The resonant length is identical to a half guide wave-
length. The element spacing is approximately a half guide
HAYASHI et al.: MILLIMETER-WAVE MICROSTRIP COMB-LINE ANTENNA USING REFLECTION-CANCELING SLIT STRUCTURE
Fig. 1. Configuration of the proposed antenna.
Fig. 2. Structure of radiating element with reflection-canceling slit for electro-
magnetic analysis.
wavelength so that all the elements on the both sides of the mi-
crostrip line are excited in phase. A matching element is de-
signed to radiate in phase all the residual power at the termina-
tion of the feeding line. Coupling power of radiating elements is
controlled by width of the radiating element. Large power
radiates from a wide element [7].
A radiation pattern with a zero-degree broadside beam
is often used in many applications. However, when all the
radiating elements are designed to excite in phase, all the re-
flections are also in phase at the feeding point, thus significantly
degrading the overall reflection characteristic of the array. In
the conventional design with beam tilting by a few degrees,
reflections are canceled at the feed point due to the distributed
reflection phase of the radiating elements. This means that the
design flexibility of beam direction is limited by the reflection
characteristics.
To solve this problem, we propose a reflection-canceling slit
structure as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. A rectangular slit [10] is
cut on the feeding line around the radiating element. A reflec-
tion from each radiating element is canceled with the reflection
from the slit. As the reflection from a pair of a radiating element
and a slit is suppressed in each element, a zero-degree broad-
side array can be designed without increasing the return loss of
the array. Because the sizes of all the radiating elements are dif-
ferent for the required aperture distribution, the slit dimensions
and the spacing of the slit from the radiating element are opti-
mized for each radiating element. The array design requires a
simple design procedure.
399
Fig. 3. Structure of lower radiating element for electromagnetic analysis.
Fig. 4. Reflection-canceling slit structure for electromagnetic analysis.
III. DESIGN
In the array design for the comb-line antenna, required ra-
diations are assigned to all the radiating elements for a given
aperture distribution. Each radiating element is designed to re-
alize the required radiation by electromagnetic analysis of fi-
nite element method. A reflection-canceling slit is introduced
to suppress reflections from the radiating elements. Because the
dimensions of all the radiating elements are different, the slit
dimensions and the spacing of the slit from radiating element
must be optimized for each radiating element. In this section,
a simple design procedure for the array design of a comb-line
antenna is proposed.
A. Design Procedure of One Radiating Element
The reflection amplitude and phase of the radiating elements
and the slits are analyzed independently by an isolated simula-
tion model shown in Figs. 3 and 4. To cancel the two reflections
from the radiating element and the slit, the amplitude must be
the same, and the phase must be opposite (180 degrees). The
reflection amplitude is controlled by the dimensions of the slit,
while the reflection phase is controlled by the spacing between
the radiating element and the slit. The slit dimensions are de-
signed for the same reflection amplitude as each radiating ele-
ment. The spacing between the radiating element and the slit is
obtained by calculation of a simple equation from the reflection
phases and the path length required to cancel the reflections.
First, the reflection amplitude and phase of a ra-
diating element are simulated from the analysis model (Fig. 3).
The resonant length is obtained for each width of th
radiating element, where reflection becomes minimum
at the design frequency. The length of each radiating element
400 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 59, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2011

Fig. 7. Radiation power from slit.

Fig. 5. Reflection characteristics j S j and j S j of radiating element at
76.5 GHz.

Fig. 8. Reflection characteristics of a radiating element with a reflection-

canceling slit.
Fig. 6. Reflection characteristics of microstrip slit at 76.5 GHz.

where means opposite phase to cancel reflections from the

is optimized by electromagnetic simulation. Fig. 5 shows the
radiating element and the slit. is the guide wavelength of the
reflection amplitude of the radiating element at 76.5 GHz. As
microstrip line and is 2.88 mm at 76.5 GHz.
the analysis model is not symmetrical for the input and output
A design result of an element whose dimensions and
ports, and are not identical; is larger than
are 0.58 and 1.32 mm is shown here as an example. The reflec-
for the same width . The radiating elements with a slit must
tion level of this radiating element is 17.2 dB at 76.5 GHz. To
be designed for all widths in the both 45- and 135-de-
obtain the same reflection amplitude from a slit, we selected the
gree element angles. Next, the reflection amplitude and
slit dimensions as the slit length and the slit
phase of a slit are simulated by the analysis model shown
width . Next, the slit position is obtained
in Fig. 4. The dependencies for the geometrical parameters of
by the (1) from their reflection phase values and .
are shown in Fig. 6. The reflection becomes high when
Consequently, the two slit positions are obtained as 0.47
and are large. The maximum reflection level of a slit is
and 0.97 mm, respectively. Fig. 8 shows the reflection char-
observed when is approximately equal to 0.70 mm, which is
acteristics of the designed radiating element with a slit. When
a quarter guide wavelength of the microstrip line. The slit width
is 0.47 mm, the resonant frequency is equal to the design
is fixed as 0.15 mm for fabrication and reflection amplitude
frequency 76.5 GHz; however, when is 0.97 mm, the res-
of a slit is initially controlled by slit length . Slit width is
onant frequency shifts to a lower frequency. That is, the phase
designed for fine adjustment afterwards. Radiation power from
perturbation of a radiating element is large, which affects reso-
a slit is indicated in Fig. 7. Radiation powers from most slits in-
nant frequency. On the other hand, the phase perturbation of the
cluding 0.15 mm width are less than 1% and are 2% maximum.
slit is small enough to be neglected in the element design.
Thus, radiation from slits can be neglected for radiation from
The variation of the reflection characteristics of the element
the elements in the design.
whose width and length are 0.50 and 1.34 mm de-
The reflection phase values of a radiating element and a slit
pends on the slit parameters investigated analytically by using
are obtained by electromagnetic simulation. Then, slit position
the electromagnetic simulator. An analysis model is shown in
is obtained in quite simple manner by
Fig. 2 as well. The reflection characteristics from the variation
of the spacing between the radiating element and the slit
(1) are shown in Fig. 9. The length and the width of a slit
HAYASHI et al.: MILLIMETER-WAVE MICROSTRIP COMB-LINE ANTENNA USING REFLECTION-CANCELING SLIT STRUCTURE
Fig. 9. Reflection characteristics in variation of spacing D between radiating
element and slit.
Fig. 10. Variation of reflection characteristics depending on slit length
are fixed as 0.16 and 0.15 mm, respectively. The reflection coef-
ficient of the radiating element with a slit is lower than 40 dB;
the reflection is 17.6 dB at 76.5 GHz without a slit, as shown
in Fig. 8. This confirms that the reflection from the radiating el-
ement is canceled sufficiently with the reflection from the slit.
The resonant frequency shifts to a lower frequency when
becomes large. The increase in the path length cancels the phase
difference due to the increase in the guide wavelength.
Fig. 10 shows the variation of reflection characteristics de-
pending on the slit length . The spacing and the width
of a slit are fixed as 0.24 and 0.15 mm, respectively. The
variation of reflection characteristics depending on the slit width
is shown in Fig. 11. The spacing and the length
of the slit are fixed as 0.24 and 0.16 mm, respectively. Reflec-
tion level at the resonant frequency changes because the reso-
nant frequency of the radiating element changes when or
changes. This is due to amplitude variation of reflection
from the slit. The reflection amplitude needs to be identical be-
tween the slit and the radiating element for them to cancel each
other. A small shift in the resonant frequency is observed when
changes. This is because phase shift of wave transmitting
through the slit changes depending on the length . Conse-
quently, in the optimization of the slit structure for each radi-
ating element, resonant frequency is adjusted by the slit location
and reflection amplitude is controlled by the slit dimensions to
cancel the reflections from the slit and the radiating element.
Coupling power to the air is calculated for each element width
from the scattering parameters and obtained by
401
Fig. 11. Variation of reflection characteristics depending on slit width W .
Fig. 12. Power relation for traveling-wave excitation.
L .
electromagnetic simulation of a single element with a slit, that
is
(2)
where is simulated transmission of the microstrip line
without the radiating element and the slit, which is identical to
the loss of the line. Coupling power is 7.4% when the width
and the length of the lower radiating element are 0.50
and 1.34 mm.
B. Array Design for Traveling-Wave Excitation
The microstrip comb-line antenna is designed to operate in
traveling-wave excitation. The input power is gradually radi-
ated from all the radiating elements during transmission from
the input port toward the termination. An array design is im-
plemented for Taylor distribution with sidelobe lower than 20
dB. The required coupling power is designed to be small near
the input port and to increase toward the termination. The re-
quired variation of coupling is from 2.0 to 49.8% controlled by
the width of the elements, where is the resonant length.
A 27-element linear array antenna with broadside beam is de-
signed for the experiments.
In the traveling-wave excitation, the power gradually attenu-
ates during transmitting along the feeding line due to the radia-
tion from the elements and the transmission loss of the microstrip
line. Power relation is indicated in Fig. 12. For the th element,
(3)
402 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 59, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2011

Fig. 14. Definition of element spacings d and d .

Fig. 13. Aperture amplitude distribution and coupling power assigned in the
design.

where input, transmission and radiation powers are ,

and , respectively. Coupling power is given
as
(4)

Furthermore, the transmission power of th element and the Fig. 15. Beam direction in the perpendicular plane to the feeding line de-
pending on the element spacing d .
input power of th element are related as
(5)
where the transmission loss is , consisting of copper
loss, dielectric loss and radiation loss. Radiation power from
each element is assigned by taking both the radiation from the
element and the transmission loss of the feeding line into ac-
count. The measured transmission loss of the microstrip line is
0.3 dB per cm.
The required Taylor distribution and assigned coupling power
for the design of 27-element array are shown in Fig. 13. Re-
quired range of coupling power is from 2.0 to 49.8%. The result
of the analysis show that coupling power can be controlled from
1.6 to 36.0% for a 135-degree element and from 1.6 to 53.3% for
a 45-degree element when width of the radiating element
changes from a minimum of 0.1 mm for fabrication to 1.1 mm, Fig. 16. Element spacing d and d depending on the width of radiating
element.
where the width is the same with length.
In the design of zero-degree broadside beam, the element
spacing is designed by considering the phase perturbation. The ements on the both sides of the feeding line, the beam direction
element spacing is defined as a spacing between the corners of in the perpendicular plane to the feeding line of the two-ele-
adjacent radiating elements attached to the center of the feeding ment array is estimated by electromagnetic simulation. Anal-
line. The element spacing is designed from the analyzed ysis models are shown in Fig. 14. In this estimation, the dimen-
phase perturbation as sions of the two radiating elements with slits are the same. Two
(6) radiating elements with slits are arranged by element spacing
. Element spacing and are defined as the distance
where is a wave number in the feeding microstrip line between the corners of the radiating elements attached to the
, is a wave number in free space and center line of the feeding line as shown in Fig. 14. This model
is a beam tilting angle from axis inclined to directions is analyzed using an electromagnetic simulator. Fig. 15 shows
defined in Fig. 1. The phase perturbation is obtained by the beam direction in the plane perpendicular to the feeding line
subtracting the transmission phase of the microstrip line with depending on the element spacing . The element spacing for
the same length from the transmission phase of the microstrip the broadside beam is not constant as the element width be-
line with a radiating element and a slit. cause the effective radiating point changes as well as the effec-
As the radiating elements attached on the both sides are not tive element spacing changes depending on the element width.
symmetrical to the feeding line, the effective element spacing Element spacing for in-phase distribution is designed to
is not the same with that of the defined element spacing. To de- obtain the broadside beam. Fig. 16 shows the element spacing
sign the element spacing for in-phase excitation between the el- and for in-phase excitation depending on the width of
HAYASHI et al.: MILLIMETER-WAVE MICROSTRIP COMB-LINE ANTENNA USING REFLECTION-CANCELING SLIT STRUCTURE
Fig. 17. Element spacing d for in-phase excitation.
Fig. 18. Configuration of matching element.
the radiating element. The change in the element spacing is sig-
nificant, from 1.0 to 1.9 mm. The relationship of the element
spacing is applied to the design of the broadside beam an-
tenna. Fig. 17 shows the element spacing of the array. The
element spacing changes significantly around a half guide
wavelength to excite all the radiating elements in phase.
C. Matching Element
The feeding line is terminated by a matching element to ra-
diate all the residual power in the feeding line. Fig. 18 shows the
structure of the matching element. The patch antenna forms a
square on one side. Resonant frequency is controlled by longi-
tudinal length in the feeding direction. Input impedance is con-
trolled by insertion length of the microstrip line, and the width
of the feeding microstrip line is 0.30 mm. The characteristic
impedance of this line is 60 . As a result of the optimization by
electromagnetic simulation, reflection becomes minimum
at the design frequency 76.5 GHz when , 12.9 dB at the design frequency 76.5 GHz. Although all the
, , , . The
simulated reflection is shown in Fig. 19. is lower than
20 dB at the design frequency.
The feeding line is bent 45 degrees to be the same polariza-
tion with all other radiating elements in the comb-line antenna.
The bent effect on the impedance matching characteristic is in-
vestigated. The simulated of the matching elements with
the 45-degree bend and without the bend are shown in Fig. 19.
Since they are almost similar to each other, the effect due to the
bend is very small.
403
Fig. 19. Simulated reflection characteristics of matching element (a =
1:31 mm, b = 0:26 mm, p = 0:40 mm, g = 0:24 mm, g = 0:25 mm).
Fig. 20. Photographs of the developed microstrip comb-line antenna.
IV. EXPERIMENTS
A microstrip comb-line antenna with 27 elements and broad-
side beam is fabricated for experiments. Photographs of the de-
veloped antenna are shown in Fig. 20. As the coupling power
from the radiating elements is controlled to realize the required
aperture distribution, the widths of the radiating element are
narrow near the input port and wide near the termination. The
slit is cut on the feeding line at the opposite side from each ra-
diating element. The fabricated antenna consists of two comb-
lines fed from the waveguide through a microstrip-to-waveguide
transition and a microstrip power divider.
Fig. 21 shows the measured reflection characteristics of the
fabricated antenna. Reflection level of the fabricated antenna is
reflections are synthesized in phase, the reflection level is still
low. Thus, the effect of the reflection-canceling slit is confirmed.
The measured radiation patterns in transversal -plane and in
longitudinal -plane are shown in Figs. 22 and 23, respectively.
Measured beam direction, beam width and sidelobe level are al-
most the same with the designed array factor in the transversal
plane. The beam direction in the longitudinal plane is 1.3 de-
gree and the sidelobe level is 17.9 dB. The measured radiation
pattern is close to the array factor. However, some errors are ob-
served in the sidelobe level and the beam direction; the sidelobe
404
Fig. 21. Measured reflection characteristics of fabricated antenna.
Fig. 22. Measured radiation pattern in transversal xz -plane.
Fig. 23. Measured radiation pattern in longitudinal yz -plane.
level grows by 2.1 dB, and beam direction shifts by 1.3 degree
from the broadside direction. To clarify the cause, the aperture
amplitude and phase distributions were measured. The fabricated
antenna was set on the stage in the anechoic chamber. A wave-
guide probe scanned twice over the antenna 8 and 9 mm above
the aperture. The spacing between the two planes 8 and 9 mm was
determined to be 1 mm and approximately a quarter wavelength.
Two complex electric field data were averaged to compensate the
effect of the standing wave distribution in free space. The results
are shown in Figs. 24 and 25, respectively. Fig. 24 shows that the
growing sidelobe could be due to error of amplitude distribution
at the input port and the termination. Fig. 25 shows the measured
phase distribution and the calculated phase distribution for beam
direction of 1.3 degrees. The slope of the measured phase dis-
tribution is close to the slope of 1.3 degree beam. Therefore,
the error of beam direction is due to the phase distribution. We
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 59, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2011
Fig. 24. Measured amplitude distribution on the aperture.
Fig. 25. Measured phase distribution on the aperture.
Fig. 26. Simulated beam shift due to the mutual coupling and the rounded cor-
ners in the etching process.
confirmed this using an electromagnetic simulator that rounded
the corners of the radiating elements; the etching process affects
the phase perturbation during transmission through the ra-
diating element. The change of phase perturbation due to the
rounded corners could cause beam tilting.
The size of the rounded corners of the radiating elements and
the slits are measured by using an optical microscope. Fig. 26
shows the simulated radiation patterns of the comb-line antenna
shown in Fig. 20 with and without the rounded corners including
all mutual couplings in the antenna. The beam direction of the
antenna without rounded corners is 0.3 degrees. It is still far
from the measured beam direction 1.3 degrees. However, the
beam direction of the antenna with the rounded corners is 1.6
degrees which is close to the measured beam direction. This
HAYASHI et al.: MILLIMETER-WAVE MICROSTRIP COMB-LINE ANTENNA USING REFLECTION-CANCELING SLIT STRUCTURE
Fig. 27. Measured frequency dependency of gain and efficiency.
means that the mutual coupling affects small to the beam shift.
Major reason for the beam shift is the rounded corners occurred
in the etching process during the antenna fabrication.
Fig. 27 shows the frequency dependency of the gain and the
antenna efficiency of the antenna composed of two feeding-lines
with comb-line antennas (Fig. 20). The maximum antenna gain
is 20.3 dBi, in which the antenna efficiency is 55.0% at the de-
sign frequency 76.5 GHz. Gain is decreased due to the beam
tilting in other frequencies. Consequently, it is confirmed that
the loss due to the slit structure could be small. The matching
characteristic is improved independent of the beam direction
using a reflection-canceling slit structure without increasing the
loss of the transmission line.
V. CONCLUSION
To suppress reflection from each radiating element, we pro-
posed the reflection-canceling slit structure. A 27-element linear
array antenna with a broadside beam is designed and fabricated
to confirm the feasibility of the simple design procedure. The re-
flection coefficient of the proposed antenna is comparable with
the conventional antenna with beam-tilting technique, although
the proposed antenna is designed for a broadside beam. The mea-
sured radiation pattern is close to the array factor of the design.
However, the beam direction of the measured antenna is 1.3 de-
gree. We also confirmed that the fabrication error of the etching
process affects the beam direction. We estimated the gain and the
antenna efficiency and confirmed that the loss due to the slit struc-
ture is small. As a result, the microstrip comb-line antenna with
arbitrary beam direction can be designed without increasing the
return loss through the use of a reflection-canceling slit structure.
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Yuki Hayashi was born in Shiga, Japan, on February
3, 1984. He received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in
computer science and engineering from Nagoya In-
stitute of Technology, Nagoya, Japan, in 2009.
He is currently working at Toshiba Corporation,
Tokyo, Japan.
Kunio Sakakibara (M94SM06) was born in
Aichi, Japan, on November 8, 1968. He received the
B.S. degree in electrical and computer engineering
from Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya,
Japan, in 1991, and the M.S. and D.E. degrees in
electrical and electronic engineering from Tokyo
Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan, in 1993 and
1996, respectively.
From 1996 to 2002, he worked at Toyota Central
Research and Development Laboratories, Inc., Aichi,
Japan, where he was engaged in development of an-
tennas for millimeter-wave automotive radar systems. From 2000 to 2001, he
was with the Department of Microwave Techniques in University of Ulm, Ulm,
Germany, as a Guest Researcher. He was a Lecturer at Nagoya Institute of Tech-
nology, from 2002 to 2004, and is currently an Associate Professor. His research
interest has been millimeter-wave antennas and circuits.
Morihiko Nanjo was born in Shizuoka, Japan, on
October 24, 1985. He received the B.S. degree in
electrical and electronic engineering and the M.S.
degrees in computer science and engineering from
Nagoya Institute of Technology, Nagoya, Japan, in
2008 and 2010, respectively.
He is currently working at Yamaha Motor Co.,
Ltd., Shizuoka, Japan.
Shingo Sugawa was born in Toyama, Japan, on Au-
gust 5, 1985. He received the B.S. degree in elec-
trical and electronic engineering and the M.S. degree
in computer science and engineering from Nagoya
Institute of Technology, Nagoya, Japan, in 2008 and
2010, respectively.
He is currently working at Honda Motor Co., Ltd.,
Saitama, Japan.
406 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION, VOL. 59, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2011

Nobuyoshi Kikuma (M83SM03) was born in Hiroshi Hirayama (S01M03) received the B.E.,
Ishikawa, Japan, on January 7, 1960. He received the M.E., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering
B.S. degree in electronic engineering from Nagoya from the University of Electro-Communications,
Institute of Technology, Nagoya, Japan, in 1982, and Chofu, Japan, in 1998, 2000, and 2003, respectively.
the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering Since 2003, he has been with the Nagoya Institute
from Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, in 1984 and of Technology, Nagoya, Japan, where he is currently
1987, respectively. a Research Associate. His research interests include
From 1987 to 1988, he was a Research Associate signal processing techniques and EMC/EMI.
at Kyoto University. In 1988, he joined Nagoya In-
stitute of Technology, where he has been a Professor
since 2001. His research interests include adaptive
and signal processing array, multipath propagation analysis, mobile and indoor
wireless communication, and electromagnetic field theory.
Dr. Kikuma received the 4th Telecommunications Advancement Foundation
Award in 1989.