Designing Optimal Surface Currents for Efficient On-Chip mm-Wave Radiators With Active Circuitry

Abstract

Integrated antennas have become the attractive solution as the electromagnetic (EM) interface for mm-Wave and terahertz ICs. However, on-chip antennas lying at the interface between two different dielectrics (such as air and substrate) can channel most of its power into multiple nonradiative surface-wave modes, reducing efficiency drastically. In this paper, we consider the following problem: given a dielectric substrate, what is the theoretical optimal 2-D surface-current configuration that collectively suppresses surface waves and maximizes radiation efficiency with the desirable radiation pattern? This paper also discusses demonstrative examples of a circuit-EM codesign approach to realize the approximation of such current configurations. Measurement results of radiating arrays in CMOS at mm-Wave frequencies (250-300 GHz) are presented and compared with theoretical predictions.

Additional Information

© 2016 IEEE. Manuscript received August 17, 2015; revised January 16, 2016 and April 28, 2016; accepted May 22, 2016. Date of publication June 14, 2016; date of current version July 7, 2016.

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