U-Helix: On-chip short conical antenna

The aggressive scaling of the CMOS technology and the convergence of CMOS and MEMS technologies along the “More Than Moore” axis of the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, paves the way to the realization of millimeter-waves front-end circuits with integrated three-dimensional antennas. In this work we present a short conical helical antenna built applying MEMS micro-fabrication techniques whose dimensions can scale down to 100 μm (for operation in the THz region) and that can be integrated on silicon chips for communication and imaging purpose. Antenna design rules and methodology, electromagnetic characteristics and actual measurement are presented.