Millimeter-Wave On-Chip Aperture-Coupled Patch Antennas Using Hot-Via Street Option in a GaAs Integrated Passive Device Process

On-chip aperture-coupled patch antennas are designed and fabricated using a GaAs integrated passive device (IPD) process with hot-via street (HVST) option. The HVST option enables partial removal of the back-side metal and therefore the creation of rectangular patches. Two aperture-coupled patch antennas are designed at 40 GHz and 80 GHz, respectively. Measurement results show that greatest return loss occurs near the frequency of design for each antenna. Simulated antenna gains are 3.3 dBi and 4.6 dBi for the 40-GHz and 80-GHz antennas, respectively. The results validate the idea of using HVST option to implement aperture-coupled patch antennas.