A millimeter-wave wideband high-gain antenna and its 3D system-in-package solution in a TSV-compatible technology

In this paper, a through-silicon via (TSV)-based millimeter-wave (mmWave) system-in-package (SiP) is proposed. As a key component in this kind of system, a high-gain wideband antenna is firstly designed using the TSV-compatible Silicon-Benzocyclobutene (Si-BCB) process. By filling the cavity with polymer, the cavity size of the fabricated antenna is reduced by 76.8% comparing with the conventional air cavity. The on-wafer measured 10-dB return loss bandwidth is 110 GHz to 147 GHz. At 135GHz, the antenna gain and the radiation efficiency are up to 6.26 dBi and 86.8%, respectively. These performance parameters are greatly improved compared with those of the conventional on-chip antennas, i.e., about -10 dBi and 10%. Subsequently, rather than the conventional wire-bonding and flip-chip methods, TSV technique is employed to integrate the high-gain antenna with active circuits. The proposed integration architecture not only reduces the footprint of the fully integrated system but also improves the isolation between the designed antenna and active circuits.