A 60 GHz 64-element wafer-scale phased-array with full-reticle design

Abstract

This paper presents the first large-scale wafer-scale phased-array at 60 GHz with 64-elements spaced )J2 apart and occupying a full reticle area of 2.2x2.2 cm 2 • The transmit array includes high-efficiency on-wafer antennas, 3-bits amplitude and S-bits phase control on each element, and a highly redundant RF distribution network for improved yield. It also includes redundant SPI control and power strips, also for improved yield.The 64-element array results in a half-power beam width of 12.5°in the E-and H-planes, a directivity of 23 dB and scans to +/-55° in the E-and H-planes with near-ideal patterns and a cross-polarization level of <-25 dB. The measured EIRP is 38 dBm at 66 GHz, but this is currently being redone for improved accuracy. To our knowledge, this is the largest single-chip phased array ever developed and paves the way to mm-wave large-scale (1000+ elements) phased-array systems.

An investigation of millimeter wave reflectarrays for small satellite platforms

“…These arrays use power distribution network (PDN) to feed the array elements. This PDN has a significant loss at mm-waves which can be as high as 42 dB as observed by [1,2]. A high gain antenna array may contain thousands of individual antenna elements [3,4].…”

The Potentials, Challenges, and Future Directions of On-Chip-Antennas for Emerging Wireless Applications—A Comprehensive Survey

“…For example, the addition of the superstrate on the top of the AoC creates severe packaging challenges since the access of all other IO is only possible through wire-bond and flip-chip on the front side of the IC. One solution is the use of a wafer-scale method based on custom lithography as proposed in [179]. Another solution at MM-Wave is proposed and validated in [180], where high performance has been achieved with the help of the aperture coupling between on-chip groundplane/feed slot and antenna-on-substrate.…”

Role of Surface Waves in the Reflection Properties of a Millimetre Wave Reflectarray Unit Cell

“…Poor propagation characteristics including atmospheric absorption, rain attenuation, reduced reflection and refraction associated with certain mm-wave bands [3] necessitate the use of high gain antennas for a reliable link operation. At mm-wave bands the power division and feeding mechanisms used to implement beamforming become prohibitively lossy particularly in the case of large arrays [4]. Due to tiny individual mm-wave antenna exhibiting low gain, an increasingly high number of radio frequency (RF) chains become practically extremely difficult to implement.…”