A 300-GHz Broadband On-Chip Antenna Integrated With a Transmitter Front-End

This paper presents a sub-THz antenna on-chip (AoC) at 300-GHz, integrated with a transmitter front-end (Tx FE) for potential use in short-range, multi-gigabit, wireless or wireline communication links. The compact AoC presents endfire radiation characteristics and is based on a technique that stimulates a pair of coupled patch elements. The advantage of the proposed design is the ability for broadband operation extending from 282 to 345 GHz while achieving a maximum antenna gain and radiation efficiency of around 7 dB and 48%, respectively. The designed Tx FE comprises a 2-stage D-band cascode power amplifier and a common-emitter push-push frequency doubler. Post-layout simulations reveal the PA-doubler chain delivering an almost flat output power of 7.2 dBm across the 290-310 GHz range. Implemented in a 90-nm SiGe BiCMOS process, the proposed design yields a remarkable EIRP of 13.8 dBm, occupying a compact chip area of 2.38 mm<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup>.