On-Chip Antennas: The Last Barrier to True RF System-on-Chip

Antennas are integral part of wireless communication devices and traditionally have remained off the Integrated Circuits (ICs which are also commonly known as chips) resulting in large sized modules. In the last decade, the increased level of integration provided by silicon technologies and emerging applications at millimeter wave frequencies (such as 5G/6G) has helped to achieve true System-on-Chip solutions bringing the antennas on the chip. This is because antenna sizes at these frequencies become small enough for practical on-chip realization. Though, there are a number of benefits of putting antennas on-chip, such as monolithic integration resulting in compact systems, robustness due to absence of bond wires or other connection mechanisms between the antenna and the circuits, lower cost due to mass manufacturing in standard CMOS processes, etc. However, there are a number of challenges to overcome, for instance dealing with silicon substrate high conductivity and permittivity (resulting in poor radiation efficiency), metal stack-up and layout restrictions, and on-chip characterization through delicate probes, etc. Furthermore, the co-design of circuits and antenna, which sometime have contradicting requirements, need knowledge of both the domains. This talk aims to discuss the above challenges in detail as well as the proposed solutions. In particular, many design examples will be shown for the gain and radiation efficiency enhancement of on-chip antennas through artificial magnetic conductors. The talk will conclude with the upcoming trends in the field of on-chip antennas. Co-sponsored by: University of Washington – Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Washington State University – Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Speaker(s): Prof. Atif Shamim, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/420398