On-Chip Slot-Ring and High-Gain Horn Antennas for Millimeter-Wave Wafer-Scale Silicon Systems

This paper presents on-chip slot-ring and horn antennas for wafer-scale silicon systems. A high efficiency is achieved using a 100-μm quartz superstrate on top of the silicon chip, and a low-loss microstrip transformer using the silicon back-end metallization. A finite ground plane is also used to reduce the power coupled to the TEM mode. The slot-ring and 1-λ₀² horn achieve a measured gain of 0-2 and 6-8 dBi at 90-96 GHz, respectively, and a radiation efficiency of ~50%. The horns achieve a high antenna gain without occupying a large area on the silicon wafer, thus resulting in a low-cost system. The designs are compatible with either single- or two-antenna transceivers, or with wafer-scale imaging systems and power-combining arrays.