CN111684654A

CN111684654A - Coplanar feed large-bandwidth antenna design in millimeter wave radar system

Info

Publication number: CN111684654A
Application number: CN201980010374.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 蔡铭; 汤一君; 唐哲
Original assignee: SZ DJI Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: SZ DJI Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2019-03-29
Filing date: 2019-03-29
Publication date: 2020-09-18
Also published as: WO2020199020A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a coplanar feed antenna, comprising: the antenna comprises a lower substrate, a middle substrate, an upper substrate, an antenna (101) and a feed structure which are arranged in sequence; wherein the antenna (101) is located on the upper substrate; the feeding structure comprises a feeding part (201) and a feeding conversion part (301); the power feeding portion (201) is located on the upper substrate; the feed conversion part (301) comprises conversion areas which are positioned on the upper layer substrate, the middle layer substrate and the lower layer substrate, and the communication of antenna signals and the feed part is realized through the feed conversion part (301). The method has the characteristics of working bandwidth, high pitching side lobe suppression level, good radiation gain flatness and stable beam pointing.

Description

Coplanar feed large-bandwidth antenna design in millimeter wave radar system

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of circuits, in particular to a light emitting device, a distance measuring device, a mobile platform, a laser radar and a laser range finder, and can also be applied to other products based on time-of-flight (TOF) technology.

Background

After 2020, each country plans to apply a 77-81 GHz frequency band with 79GHz as a center frequency to a vehicle-mounted millimeter wave broadband radar. Compared with a 76-77 GHz narrow-band frequency band, the 77-81 GHz broadband radar can greatly improve the range resolution, and is suitable for application scenes with high range resolution (0.15-0.3 m) in short-distance detection. Therefore, there is a need for a wideband operation of the radar front end including an antenna and a transceiver. In addition, the antenna directional diagram realizes the stability of beam pointing in a broadband, and the gain stability of the directional diagram can improve the stable performance in the broadband application of the radar system.

Generally, the working bandwidth of an antenna is influenced by various factors, particularly the input working impedance of an array antenna is influenced by the amplitude-phase condition of each array element in the array, and the input impedance of the array antenna, which is typical of standing wave distribution, is sharply changed in a wide frequency band, so that the working frequency band is narrow (the relative bandwidth is less than 5%);

for the antenna radiation pattern, the spatial distribution of the antenna pattern has frequency-dependent characteristics, and the main difficulties are as follows: a. side lobe suppression level: in the prior art, the central working frequency is superior to the side lobe suppression level of 15dB, and the high side lobe suppression level is kept in a large bandwidth, which is a pain point for realizing the broadband radar; b. gain flatness: the antenna frequency change influences the stability of radiation gain in a broadband, and the gain flatness of the antenna suitable for 77-81 GHz frequency band is 4-5 dB at present; c. antenna pattern beam pointing: beam scanning on the elevation surface can exist, and the angle range is +/-5 degrees;

in a common antenna feeding method, the part affects the bandwidth and the radiation pattern of an antenna, and the prior art adopts a side-feed excitation array antenna mode which cannot simultaneously meet the performance indexes of side lobe suppression level, flatness increase, antenna pattern beam pointing and the like set forth in the foregoing;

it is particularly noteworthy that, in terms of manufacturing process, currently, multilayer stacked antenna manufacturing cannot be processed according to standard PCB process, which is mainly hindered in the processing of blind buried vias. The antenna part is processed independently and then is bonded with the PCB, and the signal transmission efficiency is greatly influenced by the mode.

In view of the above problems, the present invention provides an antenna design suitable for a millimeter wave radar system, which has the characteristics of wide operating bandwidth, high level of sidelobe suppression of the pitching surface, good flatness of radiation gain, and stable beam pointing. Particularly provides a coplanar feed broadband array antenna for a millimeter wave radar system, and the working frequency range covers 77-81 GHz. The antenna can be processed by adopting a standard PCB processing technology, so that the processing difficulty is reduced, and other circuit boards are easy to integrate. In a more optimized embodiment, the antenna main body provided by the invention can ensure that the side lobe suppression ratio of an antenna directional diagram in the working bandwidth is better than 15 dB; gain flatness is less than 2 dB; the proposed aperture coupling excitation and balanced feed mode realizes the non-frequency-variation of antenna beam pointing; the whole antenna system is compact by adopting a laminated and coplanar feeding mode.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention has been made to solve at least one of the above problems. A first aspect of the present invention provides a coplanar feed antenna comprising: the antenna comprises a lower substrate, a middle substrate, an upper substrate, an antenna and a feed structure which are arranged in sequence; wherein the antenna is located on the upper substrate; the feeding structure comprises a feeding part and a feeding conversion part; the power feeding part is positioned on the upper substrate; the feed conversion part comprises a conversion area, the conversion area is positioned on the upper layer substrate, the middle layer substrate and the lower layer substrate, and the communication of the antenna signal and the feed part is realized through the feed conversion part.

Furthermore, the antenna is a series feed microstrip patch antenna and is positioned on the surface of the upper substrate.

Further, the antenna is an array antenna.

Further, the distribution of the array antenna is taylor distribution, chebyshev distribution or triangular distribution.

Further, the array antenna is provided with a central unit antenna, and after the central unit antenna is excited, energy is conducted to the sub-arrays on the two sides.

Further, an excitation slot is provided below the array antenna, and the excitation slot and the central element antenna are coupled through an aperture.

Further, the shape of the excitation slit includes an H-shape, a rectangular shape, a bow tie shape, or a hammer shape.

Further, the excitation slot comprises a waveguide narrow-side-open transverse slot.

Further, the last antenna patch is open-circuited.

Further, the feeding portion includes a microstrip line or a planar waveguide.

Further, the feed conversion portion further includes a waveguide transmission line on the lower substrate.

Further, the feeding portion and the waveguide transmission line are coupled through the transition region.

Further, the transition region is slot coupled.

Further, the waveguide transmission line transmits a signal of the feeding portion from the planar circuit to the lower substrate.

Further, the waveguide transmission line transmits a signal to the antenna by coupling with a slot.

Furthermore, the upper substrate, the middle substrate and the lower substrate are all PCB substrates.

Further, the upper substrate includes a high-frequency substrate material.

Further, the upper substrate comprises a structure formed by stacking a high-frequency substrate material and a prepreg.

Furthermore, the antenna and the feed structure are both located on the surface of the upper substrate to form a coplanar feed structure.

Further, the middle substrate comprises an insulating substrate material.

Further, the lower substrate includes a high frequency substrate material.

Further, when the coplanar feed antenna is used as a transmitting antenna, signals are transmitted to the antenna through the feed structure for transmission.

Further, when the coplanar feed antenna acts as a receive antenna, signals are received by the antenna and transmitted to the feed structure.

A second aspect of the present invention provides a mobile platform comprising:

the coplanar feed antenna described in the first aspect; and

a platform body on which the coplanar feed antenna is mounted.

Further, the mobile platform includes at least one of an unmanned aerial vehicle, an automobile, and a robot.

By providing the antenna design suitable for the millimeter wave radar system, the invention has the characteristics of working bandwidth, high pitching side lobe suppression level, good radiation gain flatness and stable beam pointing. Particularly provides a coplanar feed broadband array antenna for a millimeter wave radar system, and the working frequency range covers 77-81 GHz. The antenna can be processed by adopting a standard PCB processing technology, so that the processing difficulty is reduced, and other circuit boards are easy to integrate.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly described below, it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present invention, and for those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained according to the drawings without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is a front view of a structure of a coplanar feeding broadband antenna provided by an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a PCB stack-up of a coplanar feed broadband antenna provided by an embodiment of the invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of the result of a coplanar feeding broadband antenna S11 according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is an upward directional diagram of a coplanar feeding broadband antenna provided by an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 5 is an azimuth plane directional diagram of a coplanar feeding broadband antenna provided by an embodiment of the invention.

Description of the reference numerals

101 antenna body

201 antenna feed portion

301 feed switching section

401 PCB substrate

402 antenna layer section

403 feed layer section

501 gap

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

The invention provides an antenna design suitable for a millimeter wave radar system, which has the characteristics of working bandwidth, high pitching side lobe suppression level, good radiation gain flatness and stable beam pointing. Particularly provides a coplanar feed broadband array antenna for a millimeter wave radar system, and the working frequency range covers 77-81 GHz. The antenna can be processed by adopting a standard PCB processing technology, so that the processing difficulty is reduced, and other circuit boards are easy to integrate. In a more optimized embodiment, the antenna main body provided by the invention can ensure that the side lobe suppression ratio of an antenna directional diagram in the working bandwidth is better than 15 dB; gain flatness is less than 2 dB; the proposed aperture coupling excitation and balanced feed mode realizes the non-frequency-variation of antenna beam pointing; the whole antenna system is compact by adopting a laminated and coplanar feeding mode.

The technical solution of the present invention will be described below with reference to specific examples.

The present invention provides a coplanar feed antenna, comprising: the antenna comprises a lower substrate, a middle substrate, an upper substrate, an antenna and a feed structure which are arranged in sequence; wherein the antenna is located on the upper substrate; the feeding structure comprises a feeding part and a feeding conversion part; the power feeding part is positioned on the upper substrate; the feed conversion part comprises a conversion area, the conversion area is positioned on the upper layer substrate, the middle layer substrate and the lower layer substrate, and the communication of the antenna signal and the feed part is realized through the feed conversion part.

The specific embodiment of the invention comprises an antenna feeding mode, a feeding structure design and a PCB laminating mode.

One of the requirements of the broadband radar system on the antenna is to ensure that the beam direction does not change along with the frequency and maintain the optimal signal-to-noise ratio in the detection line of sight. In the side-fed antenna, due to the phase change of the antenna array unit in a broadband, the synthesized beam has a certain angle offset on a pitching surface. Therefore, the invention provides a broadband coplanar feed array antenna design based on a balanced center feed mode, and the specific implementation scheme is as follows.

Illustratively, a first laser firing scheme of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1.

The overall structure of the antenna according to the embodiment of the present invention is shown in fig. 1, which is a front view of the overall structure of the antenna, and includes an antenna main body 101, an antenna feeding portion 201, a feeding switching portion 301, and a PCB substrate 401 for the antenna. The antenna body 101 is etched on the upper surface of the first dielectric layer of the PCB substrate 401, and is formed by a taylor distribution unit series feed microstrip patch antenna. The lower surface of the second dielectric layer is used as a reference ground of the antenna main body, an H-shaped opening slot 501 is arranged below the central patch of the antenna main body 101, the slot 501 and the central patch are excited in an aperture coupling mode, the central patch antenna is excited by capacity to generate a specific resonant frequency, and partial energy is conducted and excited to substrings on two sides in a series mode. The last section patch antenna is an open circuit, so that the whole array is in standing wave distribution. The opening slit is not limited to the H shape, and may be rectangular, bow tie, hammer shape. Other dielectric layers may support the design of feed portion 201 and feed transition portion 301. The feeding portion 201 is not limited to microstrip lines (MS) and coplanar waveguides (CPW) other kinds of planar transmission structures. The feed conversion portion 301 converts the planar transmission structure described above into a substrate integrated waveguide transmission line (SIW), and then converts the signal energy of the surface layer into the lower layer through the coupling slot. Eventually exciting the coupling slot below the center antenna.

Fig. 2 shows a stacking manner of a PCB substrate 401 for an antenna, which is divided into 3 layers, and is mainly divided into an antenna layer part 402 and a feeding layer part 403 in function; the antenna layer substrate 402 and the feed layer substrate 403 are composed of a high-frequency substrate material and a prepreg. The feeding portion 201 and the feeding switching portion 301 constitute a feeding portion, the purpose of which is to transmit the signals of the channels of the transceiver chip with a planar circuit to the basic lower layer (layer III) of the medium, and finally to the array antenna. In this embodiment, white straight arrows in the figure indicate transmission paths of signals when the antennas are transmitting antennas.

FIG. 3 shows the return loss result of the embodiment of FIG. 1, and it can be found that the operating bandwidth of the antenna in the scheme can cover the requirement of the frequency band of 77-81 GHz.

Where the S-parameter is defined by the ratio of two complex numbers, which contains information about the amplitude and phase of the signal. S11 is the input reflection coefficient, i.e. the input Return Loss, which is also called reflection Loss (Return Loss). S11 is one of the S parameters, representing the return loss characteristics, generally seen by the network analyzer for dB values of loss and impedance characteristics. The parameter indicates that the transmitting efficiency of the antenna is not good, and the larger the value is, the larger the energy reflected by the antenna is, so that the efficiency of the antenna is poorer. The S-parameters (scattering parameters) are used to evaluate the performance of the DUT reflected and transmitted signals.

As shown in FIG. 3, the abscissa is frequency, the unit is GHz, the ordinate is S parameter, the unit is dB, wherein the solid black line shows the value of S11 parameter, according to the value of S11, when the selected frequency band range is 77-81 GHz, the value of S11 is all (-40dB, 0), especially in the range of 78-81 GHz, the value of S11 is even (-20dB, 0), therefore, in the frequency band range, the energy reflected by the antenna itself is very small, the efficiency of the antenna is very high, and therefore, it can be seen that the working bandwidth of the antenna in the scheme can cover the requirement of 77-81 GHz frequency band.

Fig. 4 and 5 show the antenna radiation pattern results for the elevation and azimuth planes, respectively, of the embodiment of fig. 1, with the elevation side lobe suppression levels and the radiation peak gain being:

TABLE 1 antenna Pattern indicators

Frequency point (GHz)	77	79	81
				Gain (dB)	12.3	12.5	11.8
Side lobe suppression level (dB)	17	18	16

The beam direction of the pitching surface of each frequency point is less than 1 degree, the side lobe suppression level is better than 15dB, and the gain flatness of the antenna is better than 2 dB.

One of the basic functions of an antenna is to radiate the energy taken from the feed line out into the surrounding space and to radiate most of the energy in the desired direction. The antenna is usually provided with a plurality of symmetrical vibrator arrays which can control radiation and further concentrate signals in the horizontal plane direction. There are typically two or more lobes in the pattern, with the largest lobe being the main lobe and the remainder being the side lobes. People often require that the first side lobe on two sides of the main lobe in the vertical (i.e. pitching) directional diagram is as weak as possible, which is called side lobe suppression, so as to avoid receiving signals directly or indirectly irradiated by the main lobe of the adjacent region to cause interference of the adjacent region, and therefore, the suppression is needed.

The coplanar feed broadband antenna structure provided by the invention is tested, and the obtained result is shown in fig. 4, wherein the abscissa is an angle, generally refers to the angle with the Z axis in the vertical direction, the ordinate is a gain, and the gain value refers to a value measured when the included angle of the antenna on the X-Y plane is 90 degrees, specifically, the solid line is a value measured when the frequency is 77GHz, the long dotted line is a value measured when the frequency is 78GHz, and the short dotted line is a value measured when the frequency is 81GHz, so that the beam direction of the pitching plane of each frequency point is less than 1 degree, the sidelobe suppression level is better than 15dB, and the antenna gain flatness is better than 2 dB.

Therefore, the coplanar feed broadband antenna structure provided by the invention has excellent performance, and has the characteristics of working bandwidth, high pitching side lobe suppression level, good radiation gain flatness and stable beam pointing. Particularly provides a coplanar feed broadband array antenna for a millimeter wave radar system, and the working frequency range covers 77-81 GHz. The antenna can be processed by adopting a standard PCB processing technology, so that the processing difficulty is reduced, and other circuit boards are easy to integrate.

According to the embodiments described in the foregoing, there are provided 1) a coplanar feeding broadband array antenna design, a feeding structure design, a PCB stacking manner; specifically, 2) in the design of the antenna main body, the antenna main body is a microstrip patch array antenna in a series feed mode; in the antenna main body design in 2), 3) in the series-fed microstrip patch array antenna, the array central unit antenna is positioned right above the coupling aperture and conducts energy to the subarrays on the two sides after being coupled and excited; in the design of the antenna main body in the step 2), 4) the aperture coupling mode is slot coupling, and the slot structure can be in a conversion form of cutting surface current, such as rectangle, H-shaped, bow tie-shaped and the like; in the design of the antenna main body in the step 2), the slot form of the excitation slot is that a transverse slot is opened at the narrow edge of the waveguide in the step 5); and 6) in the feed structure design, the transmission structure conversion mode is from the first layer of planar transmission line to the upper layer of waveguide transmission line, and then from the upper layer of waveguide transmission line to the lower layer of waveguide transmission line; in the 6) feeding structure design, 7) the first layer of plane transmission line conducts signals of the transceiver chip, and can be a microstrip line or a coplanar waveguide; in the 6) feeding structure design, 8) the upper waveguide transmission line and the lower waveguide transmission line are converted into signal transmission in a slot coupling mode; and for 9) PCB laminating mode, high-frequency substrate material and prepreg are used as the medium substrate for antenna operation by stacking; wherein, in 9) PCB lamination mode, 10) high frequency substrate material and prepreg are used as the medium substrate of the feed conversion part by stacking; among them, in the 9) PCB lamination method, 11) a high-frequency substrate material is used as a dielectric substrate of a feed structure.

The above embodiment exemplarily shows one embodiment of the present invention, and in other embodiments, the present invention can still solve the technical problems to be solved.

The antenna is a series-feed microstrip patch antenna, is located on the surface of the upper substrate, and the specific structure of the antenna can be seen in fig. 1.

The antenna is an array antenna, and the specific structure of the antenna can be seen in fig. 1.

The array antenna is distributed in a Taylor distribution mode, a Chebyshev distribution mode or a triangular distribution mode. For example, the ratio, type, number of the element antenna amplitude distributions may be changed, for example, a series of taylor distributions is selected, for example, a series of 2-stage, 3-stage, 4-stage, 5-stage, 6-stage, 7-stage, 8-stage or 9-stage is selected, for example, other antenna distributions such as chebyshev distribution or triangular distribution are selected, for example, a series of chebyshev distribution or triangular distribution may also be selected, for example, the number of antenna bodies included in the element antenna is selected, for example, at least one antenna body may be included, and each antenna body may select the same antenna body, i.e., a repetition of the same antenna body, or different antenna bodies may be selected, wherein different antenna bodies may differ in their distribution and/or series;

the array antenna is provided with a central unit antenna, and after being excited, the central unit antenna conducts energy to the subarrays on the two sides.

Wherein the array antenna has an excitation slot below it, the excitation slot being aperture-coupled to the central element antenna.

Wherein, the excitation gap, which may also be called a coupling gap, has a shape including an H-shape, a rectangle, a bow tie or a hammer shape. The slit may also include an aperture structure, and the present invention is not particularly limited thereto.

Wherein the excitation slot comprises a waveguide narrow-side-open transverse slot.

Wherein, the last section antenna patch is an open circuit.

Wherein the feed portion comprises a microstrip line or a planar waveguide.

Wherein the feed conversion portion further comprises a waveguide transmission line on the lower substrate.

Wherein the feeding portion is coupled to the waveguide transmission line through the transition region, as shown in fig. 2.

Wherein the transition region is slot coupled.

Wherein the waveguide transmission line transmits a signal of the feeding portion from the planar circuit to the lower substrate.

Wherein the waveguide transmission line transmits a signal to the antenna by coupling with a slot.

The upper substrate, the middle substrate and the lower substrate are all PCB substrates.

Wherein the upper substrate comprises a high frequency substrate material. Specifically, the material is RO3003, and, for example, the substrate material property may be changed.

The upper substrate comprises a structure formed by stacking a high-frequency substrate material and a prepreg. Illustratively, the stack size may be varied.

The antenna and the feed structure are both positioned on the surface of the upper substrate to form a coplanar feed structure.

Wherein the middle substrate comprises an insulating substrate material. Specifically, the material is FR4, and for example, the substrate material properties may be changed.

Wherein the lower substrate comprises a high frequency substrate material. Specifically, the material is FR4, and for example, the substrate material properties may be changed.

When the coplanar feed antenna is used as a transmitting antenna, signals are transmitted to the antenna through the feed structure for transmission, as shown in fig. 2.

Wherein when the coplanar feed antenna is used as a receiving antenna, signals are received by the antenna and transmitted to the feed structure, as shown in fig. 2.

The present invention also provides a mobile platform comprising:

the coplanar feed antenna described in the first aspect; and

a platform body on which the coplanar feed antenna is mounted.

Technical terms used in the embodiments of the present invention are only used for illustrating specific embodiments and are not intended to limit the present invention. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. Further, the use of "including" and/or "comprising" in the specification is intended to specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components.

The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of all means or step plus function elements in the claims below, if any, are intended to include any structure, material, or act for performing the function in combination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Various modifications and alterations to this invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of this invention. The embodiments described herein are further intended to explain the principles of the invention and its practical application and to enable others skilled in the art to understand the invention.

The flow chart described in the present invention is only an example, and various modifications can be made to the diagram or the steps in the present invention without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For instance, the steps may be performed in a differing order, or steps may be added, deleted or modified. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that all or a portion of the above-described embodiments may be practiced and equivalents thereof may be resorted to as falling within the scope of the invention as claimed.

Claims

1. A coplanar feed antenna, comprising: the antenna comprises a lower substrate, a middle substrate, an upper substrate, an antenna and a feed structure which are arranged in sequence;

wherein the antenna is located on the upper substrate;

the feeding structure comprises a feeding part and a feeding conversion part;

the power feeding part is positioned on the upper substrate;

the feed switching section includes a switching region,

the conversion region is positioned on the upper substrate, the middle substrate and the lower substrate,

communication of antenna signals with the feeding portion is achieved through the feeding switching portion.

2. A coplanar feed antenna as set forth in claim 1 wherein said antenna is a series fed microstrip patch antenna disposed on a surface of said upper substrate.

3. A coplanar feed antenna as set forth in claim 2 wherein said antenna is an array antenna.

4. A coplanar feed antenna as set forth in claim 3 wherein the distribution of the array antennas is a taylor distribution, a chebyshev distribution, or a triangular distribution.

5. A coplanar feed antenna as set forth in claim 3 wherein said array antenna has a center element antenna which, when energized, conducts energy to both side sub-arrays.

6. A coplanar feed antenna as set forth in claim 5 wherein said array antenna has a launch slot below it, said launch slot being aperture coupled to said center element antenna.

7. A coplanar feed antenna as set forth in claim 6 wherein the shape of the excitation slot comprises an H-shape, a rectangular shape, a bow tie shape, or a hammer shape.

8. A coplanar feed antenna as set forth in claim 3 wherein said excitation slot comprises a waveguide narrow-sided open transverse slot.

9. A coplanar feed antenna as set forth in claim 3 wherein the stub antenna patches are open-circuited.

10. A coplanar feed antenna as set forth in claim 1 wherein said feed section comprises a microstrip or a planar waveguide.

11. A coplanar feed antenna as set forth in claim 1 wherein said feed transition section further comprises a waveguide transmission line disposed on said underlying substrate.

12. A coplanar feed antenna as set forth in claim 11 wherein said feed section is coupled to said waveguide transmission line through said transition region.

13. A coplanar feed antenna as set forth in claim 12 wherein said transition region is slot coupled.

14. A coplanar feeding antenna as set forth in claim 11 wherein said waveguide transmission line transmits the signal of the feeding portion from the planar circuit to the underlying substrate.

15. A coplanar feed antenna as set forth in claim 14 wherein said waveguide transmission line transmits signals to said antenna by coupling with a slot.

16. A coplanar feed antenna as set forth in claim 1 wherein said upper, middle and lower substrates are PCB substrates.

17. A coplanar feed antenna as set forth in claim 16 wherein said upper substrate comprises a high frequency substrate material.

18. A coplanar feed antenna as set forth in claim 16 wherein said superstrate comprises a structure formed by stacking a high frequency substrate material and a prepreg.

19. A coplanar feed antenna as set forth in claim 16 wherein said antenna and said feed structure are both disposed on said upper substrate surface to form a coplanar feed structure.

20. A coplanar feed antenna as set forth in claim 16 wherein said middle substrate comprises an insulative substrate material.

21. A coplanar feed antenna as set forth in claim 16 wherein said underlying substrate comprises a high frequency substrate material.

22. A coplanar feed antenna as set forth in claim 1 wherein, when the coplanar feed antenna is operating as a transmit antenna, signals are transmitted through the feed structure to the antenna for transmission.

23. A coplanar feed antenna as set forth in claim 1 wherein, when the coplanar feed antenna is operating as a receive antenna, signals are received by the antenna and transmitted to the feed structure.

24. A mobile platform, comprising:

a coplanar feed antenna as set forth in any one of claims 1 to 23; and

a platform body on which the coplanar feed antenna is mounted.

25. The mobile platform of claim 24, wherein the mobile platform comprises at least one of an unmanned aerial vehicle, an automobile, and a robot.