Chip-mounted dielectric resonator antenna with alignment and testing features

A new concept for an on-chip millimeter-wave dielectric resonator antenna is presented. A spherical dielectric resonator is placed on the chip surface and is excited by an on-chip microstrip feed. A shallow crate is etched in the polymer layers atop the bulk semiconductor, in close proximity of the microstrip feed. The dielectric sphere placed into the crate will position itself to high precision. The microstrip feed structure forms a parallel resonant circuit from line to ground. Before mounting the sphere, the feed point can be on-wafer tested with conventional 50 Ohm ground-signal-ground probes. Measurements at 69 GHz are presented. The concept combines mechanical simplicity and low signal loss.