A Review of Design and Integration Technologies for D-Band Antennas

This article reviews the current state-of-the-art of millimeter-wave (mm-wave) antennas for communication and sensing applications in the D-band between 110 and 170 GHz. The most popular design techniques, including Antenna-on-Board (AoB), slotted waveguides, Antenna-in-Package (AiP) and Antenna-on-Chip (AoC), are described using relevant examples from scientific literature. Potential benefits and limitations of integration technologies, such as specialized packaging, chip post-processing steps and interconnects, are listed as well. The reported performances of all listed designs are compared against each other, taking the antenna size relative to operating frequency into account. This novel comparison indicates that small-scale integrated AiP and AoC designs can achieve competitive performance levels with short and low-loss interconnects.