A novel topology of high-gain millimeter-wave antenna compatible with substrate integration is presented. The antenna is composed of a planar discrete lens laid on top of a core dielectric, while the planar focal source is assembled on the bottom side. The antenna can be fabricated as a single, robust and compact module using standard low-cost PCB technologies, and is compatible with IC integration such as a transceiver circuit for fully integrated millimeter-wave front-end modules. The proposed architecture is studied with two compact V-band antennas (32 mm × 32 mm × 13.2 mm). The main design rules are demonstrated for unit cells, focal source, and planar lens at V-band. Promising performances in terms of gain (17.6 and 20.4 dBi), aperture efficiency (14 and 26%), and fractional 3-dB gain bandwidth (17 and 18%) are obtained experimentally for the two considered compact antennas.
