Design and Simulation Study of 300-GHz Molded Patch Antenna in Packaging Substrate

Antenna implementation for sub-Terahertz (sub-THz) applications on a printed circuit board (PCB) and integrated circuits has inherent limitations. The flexibility offered by semiconductor packaging technologies makes antenna-in-package (AIP) a viable option. The design and simulation results of a 300-GHz AIP are presented in this paper. This work uses a lead-frame-laminate hybrid package technology to design a rectangular 300-GHz patch antenna with copper metal layers pre-molded into a substrate. The antenna is designed in the top two layers of a 3-metal-layer packaging substrate. Three-dimensional (3D) electromagnetic (EM) simulations of the antenna-in-package show >14% higher radiation efficiency and ~2.5 GHz wider –10 dB |S11| bandwidth when compared to similar 300-GHz on-chip antennas. Further improvement of >2.5 GHz in –10 dB |S11| bandwidth, ~1.4 dB increase in peak gain, and ~18% increase in radiation efficiency is observed when the antenna is encapsulated using an epoxy mold compound (EMC).