The Challenges of Measuring Integrated Antennas at Millimeter-Wave Frequencies [Measurements Corner]

The increasing demand for radar sensors and the wide distribution of handheld communication devices push the development of low-cost components with a small form factor. One approach to achieve smaller, low-cost devices is the integration of the required components on a monolithic microwave-integrated circuit (MMIC). At frequencies above 100 GHz, passive components are small enough to be integrated onto a chip, and the advances in semiconductor technology make it possible to build active components that can operate at millimeter (mm)-wave frequencies [1], [2]. The available bandwidths of several gigahertz at mm-wave frequencies offer high data rates for communication devices or high resolution for remote-sensing applications. By integrating the radio-frequency (RF) components and the antennas, lossy off-chip transitions can be avoided, thus limiting the required connections to the power supply and baseband signals.