An efficient CMOS on‐chip ladder reflector antenna for inter‐chip communications

Abstract

This article presented a new ladder reflector antenna on chip (AOC) which consisted of an active dipole and reflector array. The ladder structure was very easy to fabricate with the standard CMOS process. A ladder reflector antenna operating at the 24 GHz ISM band was designed with a standard 0.18 μm six metal layers CMOS process. The whole antenna had a dimension of 0.025 mm × 2.84 mm. The measurement results showed that the ladder reflector antenna got a return loss of −7.25 dB and a gain of 6.25 dBds at 24 GHz, as well as a −5 dB impedance bandwidth of 16.2–30 GHz. The measured S12 indirectly proved the simulated radiation patterns. The data taken from the experiment indicated that the ladder reflector increased the antenna gain and effectively enhanced the energy radiating to the outside of the chip. It's very useful for the wireless interconnect for inter‐chip communications. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 51: 59–63, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.24000