A CMOS UWB On-Chip Antenna With a MIM Capacitor Loading AMC

A novel ultrawideband (UWB) on-chip antenna with metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitor loading artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) is presented using CMOS process. An equivalent resonant circuit model is proposed for understanding the physical insight of operating modes of the MIM-AMC. Based on the simulated results, comparisons of the bandwidth, transmission gain, and size of several different on-chip antennas are made. The effects of the lossy vias, the size and number of AMC patches, and the MIM capacitance on the performance of the antenna are analyzed. Within the resonant frequency band, a balanced optimized antenna is concluded based on the analysis, of which the radiation pattern is simulated to better understand the operating modes of the on-chip antenna. This antenna is fabricated in 0.18-μm CMOS with a size of 3.56 × 0.5 mm
²
; a -10-dB S11 impedance bandwidth of 22.5-33.8 GHz; and a maximum -41.8-dB transmission gain at 25 GHz, which is measured with 5-mm interchip distance. The antenna can be used in UWB wireless inter-/intraconnects or a wireless chip area network.