Analysis and Design of Laterally and Vertically Radiating Bondwires Antennas for the 140–220 GHz Band

This work presents the analysis and the design of on-chip bondwires antennas for lateral and vertical radiation in the frequency band 140GHz - 220 GHz. The antennas are fabricated with standard 17μm aluminum wires on a programmable semiautomatic ultrasonic wedge bonder to ensure high reproducibility. Two antennas are demonstrated welding the wires on chips fabricated with the back-end of the line of a commercially-available silicon process. The first design is a dipole antenna with central frequency of operation at 160 GHz, 2 dBi of gain and 20 GHz of bandwidth. The second radiating element is a halfloop antenna with dual-band operation centered at 160GHz and 210 GHz, 8 dBi and 6 dBi of gain, and 23GHz and 15 GHz of bandwidth, respectively. The dipole antenna is shaped to radiate laterally and vertically to the wafer surface at 160 GHz, while the loop antenna radiates at 160 GHz horizontally to the wafer surface, and at 210 GHz with an elevation of 45° respect to it. Compared to the state of the art, the demonstrated antennas own the highest gain for bondwire implementations, and the smallest occupation area since they do not require additional metal cavities to operate.