D-band on-chip higher-order-mode dielectric-resonator antennas fed by half-mode cavity in CMOS technology

In this paper, on-chip higher-order-mode dielectric-resonator antennas (DRAs), fed by a half-mode-backed cavity structure using standard CMOS technology, are presented. With the dominant cavity mode (half-TE100z), the half-mode cavity-feeding structure provided a high antenna radiation efficiency. The dielectric resonators (DRs) were designed to operate at higher-order modes (TE delta 13x, TE delta 15x) to enhance the antenna gain. At around 135 GHz, the proposed antennas demonstrated measured gains of 6.2 dBi and 7.5 dBi for the TE delta 13x and TE delta 15x modes, respectively, with corresponding simulated radiation efficiencies of 46% and 42%. Both antennas had a measured impedance bandwidth of 7%. The proposed antennas not only accomplished high gain without occupying a large chip area, but also maintained comparable or even improved cost performance and simplicity over other on-chip antennas.