Design and Characterization of CMOS On-Chip Antennas for 60 GHz Communications

In this paper, we present the design and the measurement of two antennas realized on a 130nm CMOS process. They both radiate in the 60 GHz band and are dedicated to Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) applications. The antennas are manufactured within the frame of a multi-wafer project with several surrounding microelectronic circuits. The first antenna is an Inverted-F antenna (IFA). It has a maximum gain of -8 dBi and a -10 dB matching bandwidth of 20%. The second radiator is a meandered dipole. It has a maximum gain of -14 dBi and a -10 dB matching bandwidth of 10%. The challenging measurement of their reflection coefficient and their gain radiation pattern are presented. Simulated versus meas-ured curves are analyzed. We especially demonstrate the necessity to take into account the closest microelectronic circuits of the antennas for accurate modeling of the radi-ating performance of 60 GHz on-chip dies.