A Hybrid Integrated High-Gain Antenna With an On-Chip Radiator Backed by Off-Chip Ground for System-on-Chip Applications

This paper presents the design of a V-band hybrid integrated high-gain antenna. This antenna is designed to meet the system-on-chip applications in a quad flat no-lead (QFN) package. The antenna consists of an on-chip loop radiator, a dielectric resonator (DR), and an off-chip ground plane. The on-chip radiator is fabricated to excite the DR using the standard 0.18-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{m}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> CMOS technology with a high-resistivity (HR) silicon substrate. The off-chip ground is realized by a simplified QFN die pad. Several advantages of this off-chip ground structure are discussed in this paper. The impact of the off-chip ground on the performance of the proposed DR antenna is investigated by both simulations and measurements. The DR, the off-chip ground structure, and the HR silicon substrate are simultaneously introduced in this design to augment the gain of the antenna. A measured gain of 7.8 dBi is achieved at 67 GHz with a simulated radiation efficiency of 96.7% and chip size of only <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.7 \times 1.25$ </tex-math></inline-formula> mm<sup>2</sup>.

[1]  Gabriel M. Rebeiz,et al.  A 3 G-Bit/s W-band SiGe ASK receiver with a high-efficiency on-chip electromagnetically-coupled antenna , 2010, 2010 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium.

[2]  Gabriel M. Rebeiz,et al.  Differential Microstrip and Slot-Ring Antennas for Millimeter-Wave Silicon Systems , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[3]  Gabriel M. Rebeiz,et al.  On-Chip Slot-Ring and High-Gain Horn Antennas for Millimeter-Wave Wafer-Scale Silicon Systems , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[4]  M. Sun,et al.  On-chip antennas for 60-GHz radios in silicon technology , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices.

[5]  A. Rydberg,et al.  65-nm CMOS Monolithically Integrated Subterahertz Transmitter , 2011, IEEE Electron Device Letters.

[6]  T. Lim,et al.  135-GHz Micromachined On-Chip Antenna and Antenna Array , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[7]  W. Hong,et al.  Silicon-based on-chip antenna design for millimeter-wave/THz applications , 2011, 2011 IEEE Electrical Design of Advanced Packaging and Systems Symposium (EDAPS).

[8]  R.N. Simons,et al.  On-wafer characterization of millimeter-wave antennas for wireless applications , 1998 .

[9]  Yu Su,et al.  Communication Using Antennas Fabricated in Silicon Integrated Circuits , 2007, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[10]  Raghvendra Kumar Chaudhary,et al.  Improved Spurious Free Performance of Multi-Layer Multipermittivity Dielectric Resonator in MIC Environment , 2011 .

[11]  A. Shamim,et al.  The last barrier: on-chip antennas , 2013, IEEE Microwave Magazine.

[12]  T. Zwick,et al.  Millimeter-Wave Technology for Automotive Radar Sensors in the 77 GHz Frequency Band , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[13]  H.-R. Chuang,et al.  A 60-GHz millimeter-wave CMOS RFIC-on-chip meander-line planar inverted-F antenna for WPAN applications , 2008, 2008 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium.

[14]  Yong-Zhong Xiong,et al.  130-GHz On-Chip Meander Slot Antennas With Stacked Dielectric Resonators in Standard CMOS Technology , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[15]  M. Schneider,et al.  Integrated antennas in eWLB packages for 77 GHz and 79 GHz automotive radar sensors , 2011, 2011 41st European Microwave Conference.

[16]  A. Sugavanam,et al.  On-chip antennas in silicon ICs and their application , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices.

[17]  S. Chartier,et al.  Monolithic Integration of a Folded Dipole Antenna With a 24-GHz Receiver in SiGe HBT Technology , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[18]  D. Pozar,et al.  Comparison of three methods for the measurement of printed antenna efficiency , 1988 .

[19]  Y. Xiong,et al.  60-GHz AMC-Based Circularly Polarized On-Chip Antenna Using Standard 0.18-$\mu$ m CMOS Technology , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[20]  A. Hajimiri,et al.  A 77-GHz Phased-Array Transceiver With On-Chip Antennas in Silicon: Receiver and Antennas , 2006, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[21]  Gabriel M. Rebeiz,et al.  A 0.32 THz SiGe 4x4 Imaging Array Using High-Efficiency On-Chip Antennas , 2013, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[22]  D. Gloria,et al.  Folded-Slot Integrated Antenna Array for Millimeter-Wave CMOS Applications on Standard HR SOI Substrate , 2009, 2009 IEEE Topical Meeting on Silicon Monolithic Integrated Circuits in RF Systems.

[23]  M. Sayer,et al.  Dielectric Resonator Antenna on Silicon Substrate for System On-Chip Applications , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[24]  L. Dussopt,et al.  A 60 GHz UWB impulse radio transmitter with integrated antenna in CMOS65nm SOI technology , 2011, 2011 IEEE 11th Topical Meeting on Silicon Monolithic Integrated Circuits in RF Systems.

[25]  Theodore S. Rappaport,et al.  On-Chip Integrated Antenna Structures in CMOS for 60 GHz WPAN Systems , 2009, GLOBECOM 2009 - 2009 IEEE Global Telecommunications Conference.

[26]  Cheng-Ying Hsu,et al.  A 60-GHz Millimeter-Wave CPW-Fed Yagi Antenna Fabricated by Using 0.18- $\mu\hbox{m}$ CMOS Technology , 2008, IEEE Electron Device Letters.

[27]  T.H. Lee,et al.  A 77GHz monolithic IMPATT transmitter in standard CMOS technology , 2005, IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest, 2005..

[28]  Rui Li,et al.  Antenna-in-Package Design Based on Wafer-Level Packaging With Through Silicon Via Technology , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology.

[29]  K. Leung,et al.  Designs of Single-, Dual-, Wide-Band Rectangular Dielectric Resonator Antennas , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[30]  Linus Maurer,et al.  Radiation Performance Enhancement of E-Band Antenna in Package , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology.

[31]  Thomas Zwick,et al.  Miniaturized 122 GHz short range radar sensor with antenna-in-package (AiP) and dielectric lens , 2014, The 8th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2014).

[32]  Xiaojun Yuan,et al.  A 60-GHz OOK Receiver With an On-Chip Antenna in 90 nm CMOS , 2010, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits.

[33]  S. Safavi-Naeini,et al.  High-Efficiency On-Chip Dielectric Resonator Antenna for mm-Wave Transceivers , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.

[34]  T.H. Lee,et al.  Monolithic integrated millimeter-wave IMPATT transmitter in standard CMOS technology , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[35]  N. Behdad,et al.  A 0.3mm/sup 2/ Miniaturized X-Band On-Chip Slot Antenna in 0.13/spl mu/m CMOS , 2007, 2007 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFIC) Symposium.

[36]  R. Plana,et al.  Micromachined Loop Antennas on Low Resistivity Silicon Substrates , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation.