A Millimeter-Wave Micromachined Air-Filled Slot Antenna Fed by Patch

In this paper, a millimeter-wave air-filled slot antenna is presented based on bulk silicon microelectromechanical systems micromachining technology. The antenna is suitable for system-in-package application by utilizing this silicon micromachining technique. To achieve high radiation efficiency in millimeter-wave band, three gold-plated silicon layers are bonded together to realize an air-filled slot antenna. The air-filled structure has the advantages of reducing transmission loss and enhancing the radiation gain. To mitigate the discontinuity between silicon and air, the proposed antenna employs a patch to feed the air-filled structure that also broadens the impedance bandwidth. Owing to the micromachining technique and the air-filled structure, the antenna can be easily integrated with integrated circuit without suffering from dielectric loss. The measured impedance bandwidth of the proposed antenna is 56.3-63.4 GHz, and the measured peak gain is 7.8 dBi at 60 GHz.