On-Chip Monolithic Integrated Antennas Using CMOS Ground Supply Planes

Monolithic integrated antennas have the potential to provide new functionality to wireless systems on chip like higher integrability, fast and easy-to-implement chip-to-chip communication, and sensor miniaturization. There are two major issues with on-chip antenna integration: 1) the chip area dedicated to the antenna should be as small as possible; and 2) the standard CMOS silicon substrate has high dielectric losses at microwave frequencies, which reduces dramatically the antenna efficiency. This paper summarizes the implementation of on-chip antennas manufactured in the CMOS ground supply plane on low-loss substrates as a possible solution for efficient antenna integration.