240 GHz antenna integrated on low-cost organic substrate packaging technology targeting high-data rate sub-THz telecommunication

The RF performance of advanced silicon technologies has enabled the development of highly integrated wireless System on Chip (SoC) from 60 GHz up to the sub-THz spectrum. Leveraging wide bandwidths available at sub-THz frequency, data rates above 10 Gb/s have already been demonstrated. However, in order to develop highly integrated and cost effective silicon-based sub-THz wireless SoC we also have to develop appropriate packaging and antenna technologies. In this paper, we investigate achievable performance of an antenna integrated on an organic substrate used by standard BGA packaging technology. A state-of-the-art antenna gain of ~7 dBi is measured at 235 GHz and a wide bandwidth of ~80 GHz seems achievable if appropriate manufacturing tolerance can be mastered.