Studies on on-chip antenna using standard CMOS technology

Necessity of achieving a compact system by means of integrating millimeter and microwave components has increased the demand of silicon based technology. In this paper, research progress on on-chip antennas using standard CMOS technology is discussed and summarized. Major component of a RF frontend circuit is the antenna. At higher frequencies, size of the antenna is reduced to few millimeters that makes integration of the antenna feasible with other electronic components on the same substrate (silicon). The main purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the current research activities related to on-chip antennas and address the challenges for on-chip antenna design. This will help the readers to implement a true ‘system-on-chip’ (SoC) for general purpose communication, RF sensor application etc.