volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

A 400 GHz monolithic leaky wave antenna (LWA) is presented in this paper. The proposed LWA, constructed by the unit cell with multiple structural parameters, is regarded as the on-chip microstrip with perforation on the signal trace and the ground plane. A hybrid full-wave eigenvalue method theoretically extracts the complex propagation constants of first higher-order mode (EH1) of the perforated microstrip to improve the unit cell design. The extracted results also assist in realizing the differential feeding network to excite the leaky mode of the proposed antenna in high efficiency. A 400 GHz LWA prototype is designed and fabricated in CMOS 0.13 μm 1P8M process. The on-chip experiments show the measured input return loss including the effects of the contact pad lower than 10 dB from 380 GHz to 420 GHz. The measured antenna gain is higher than 0.8 dBi and has a maximum value of 1.3 dBi at 400 GHz. From 390 GHz to 405 GHz, the measured main beam is at 33° to 43° from broadside, indicating good agreement with the calculated results.

1. Cheema, H. M. and A. Shamim, "The last barrier: on-chip antenna," IEEE Microw. Mag., Vol. 14, No. 1, 79-91, 2003.
doi:10.1109/MMM.2012.2226542

2. Chen, I. J., H. Wang, and P. W. Hsu, "A V-band quasi-optical GaAs HEMT monolithic integrated antenna and receiver front end," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., Vol. 51, No. 12, 2461-2468, 2003.
doi:10.1109/TMTT.2003.819212

3. Abbasi, M., S. Gunnarsson, N. Wadefalk, R. Kozhuharov, J. Svedin, S. Cherednichenko, I. Angelov, I. Kallfass, A. Leuther, and H. Zirath, "Single-chip 220-GHz active heterodyne receiver and transmitter MMICs with on-chip integrated antenna," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., Vol. 59, No. 2, 466-478, 2010.
doi:10.1109/TMTT.2010.2095028

4. Baek, Y. H., L. H. Truong, S. W. Park, S. J. Lee, Y. S. Chae, E. H. Rhee, H. C. Park, and J. K. Rhee, "94-GHz log-periodic antenna on GaAs substrate using air-bridge structure," IEEE Antennas Wirel. Propag. Lett., Vol. 8, 909-912, 2005.

5. Seok, E., D. Shim, C. Mao, R. Han, S. Sankaran, C. Cao, W. Knap, and K. O. Kenneth, "Progress and challenges towards terahertz CMOS integrated circuits," IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, Vol. 45, No. 8, 1554-1564, 2008.
doi:10.1109/JSSC.2010.2049793

6. Pan, S. J., F. Caster, P. Heydari, and F. Capolino, "A 94-GHz extremely thin metasurface-based BiCMOS on-chip antenna," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., Vol. 62, No. 9, 4439-4454, 2014.
doi:10.1109/TAP.2014.2330575

7. Pan, S. J. and F. Capolino, "Design of a CMOS on-chip slot antenna with extremely flat cavity at 140 GHz," IEEE Antennas Wirel. Propag. Lett., Vol. 10, 827-831, 2011.
doi:10.1109/LAWP.2011.2163291

8. Bhattacharyya, A. and R. Garg, "Effect of substrate on the efficiency of an arbitrarily shaped microstrip patch antenna," IEEE Trans. Antennas Propag., Vol. 34, No. 10, 1181-1189, 1986.
doi:10.1109/TAP.1986.1143748

9. Hu, S., Y. Z. Xiong, B. Zhang, L. Wang, T. G. Lim, M. Je, and M. Madihian, "A SiGe BiCMOS transmitter/receiver chipset with on-chip SIW antennas for terahertz applications," IEEE J. Solid- State Circuits, Vol. 47, No. 11, 2654-2665, 2012.
doi:10.1109/JSSC.2012.2211658

10. Necu1oiu, D., A. Muller, E. Laskin, and S. P. Voinigescu, "160 GHz on-chip dipole antenna structure in silicon technology," Proc. IEEE Int. Semiconductor Conf., 245-248, Sinaia, Romania, October 2007.

11. Tzuang, C. K. C., H. S. Wu, X. R. Li, and J. G. Ma, "Monolithic synthetic transmission-line leakymode antenna at THz," The 43rd European Microwave Conf., 499-503, Nuremberg, Germany, October, 2013.

12. Li, X. R., C. K. C. Tzuang, and H. S. Wu, "Anomalous dispersion characteristics of periodic substrate integrated waveguides from microwave to terahertz," IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Tech., Vol. 63, No. 7, 2142-2153, 2015.
doi:10.1109/TMTT.2015.2431265

13. Tsai, K. H. and C. K. C. Tzuang, "Mode symmetry analysis and design of CMOS synthetic coupled transmission lines," IEEE MTT-S Int. Microwave Symp., 258-262, Boston, MA, 2009.

14. Oliner, A. A. and D. R. Jackson, "Leaky-wave antennas," Antenna Engineering Handbook, McGraw-Hill, New York, 2007.

Ms. Qianru Weng

Dr. Xinru Li

Prof. Hsien-Shun Wu

Dr. Ching-Kuang Tzuang