Nanoscale Optical Dielectric Rod Antenna for On-Chip Interconnecting Networks

A nanoscale on-chip optical dielectric rod antenna is demonstrated in this paper. The antenna is designed and fabricated on a 200-mm silicon-on-insulator platform, using IMEC 193-nm-deep UV lithography. A 500-nm-thick polymer layer is designed and deposited to act as an asymmetric slab waveguide, confining the radiated wave within the layer. Full-wave analysis predicts antenna return loss above 25 dB, and end-fire gain greater than 9 dBi from 172 to 222 THz. Six antenna pairs with 1-, 3-, 5-, 7-, 12-, and 17-
$\mu{\hbox {m}}$
separations are fabricated. Corresponding transmissions are measured from 190 to 200 THz. Two on-chip optical signal hubs composed of 16 and 32 antennas designed for core-to-core interconnection for the next-generation multicore microprocessors are also demonstrated. Good agreement between the modeling and measurement is obtained.