A 98-158GHz On-Chip Bondwire Differential Antenna with 2.6dBi Gain and 80% Efficiency for Sub-THz Applications

This work proposes a compact on-chip bondwire differential antenna with wide bandwidth and high efficiency for sub-THz applications. To enhance the gain and radiation efficiency by reducing interference with the lossy silicon substrate, a ground plane is introduced to the differential loop antenna. The antenna is shaped to predominantly radiate vertically to the wafer surface. Additionally, a shunt differential bondwire inductor is proposed to broaden the bandwidth. Based on a 65nm bulk CMOS process, the proposed antenna achieves a maximum gain of 2.6dBi, a maximum radiation efficiency of 80%, and a fractional bandwidth (FBW) of 47%, showing great potentials compared to the-state-of-the-art on-chip antennas.