On-Chip Antenna Measurements: Calibration and De-embedding Considerations

This paper presents the design and implementation of an integrated balun for testing 24 GHz on-chip differential antennas. The balun is completely characterized on lossy Si substrate for subsequent de-embedding of the antenna impedance. A simple de-embedding technique is developed and verified to extract differential antenna impedance from single-ended S-parameters. The gain of the on-chip antennas is easily estimated through a novel gain calibration technique. Finally, near to far field transformation is employed to extract full radiation patterns.