This paper presents the use of selective lateral etching based on micromachining techniques to enhance the performance of rectangular microstrip patch antennas printed on high-index wafers such as silicon, GaAs, and InP. Micromachined patch antennas on Si substrates have shown superior performance over conventional designs where the bandwidth and the efficiency have increased by as much as 64% and 28%, respectively. In this work, the silicon material is removed laterally underneath the patch antenna to produce a cavity that consists of a mixture of air and substrate with equal or unequal thicknesses. Characterization of the micromachined patch antenna is presented herein and includes a discussion on the bandwidth improvements, radiation patterns, and efficiency of the patch. In addition, antenna placement on the reduced index cavity with respect to the high-index substrate is described to achieve efficiency improvements over conventional patch antennas.
