Efficient Design of Integrated Antennas on Si for On-Chip Wireless Interconnects in Multi-Layer Metal Process

Abstract

In this study it has been shown that the transmission gain of an integrated dipole antenna on a Si chip used for an on-chip wireless interconnect is drastically reduced in a multi-layer metal interconnect scheme when a second metal layer is placed above the antenna at the usual interlayer metal distance. The best way to preserve high gain of the integrated antenna in such a multi-layer metal process is to design an antenna with excitation vertically through the Si substrate. In the presence of the upper metal layers, the vertically excited field mode propagating through the Si substrate does not cause any significant reduction in the power transmission of the antenna. Simulations of the structures have been carried out using the ANSOFT high frequency structure simulation (HFSS) program employing the three dimensional finite element method. A simple analytical model has also been developed, and the results are presented for comparison.

Effect of Variation of Resistivity and Antenna Distance on Integrated Antenna System in Silicon

“…Hence, wireless interconnect is a viable candidate to be used in future ultra large-scale integrated circuits (ULSIs). A lot of works have been reported on the characteristics of on chip antenna previously [12]. This work demonstrates the change in forward transmission gain of the integrated dipole antenna with the change in resistivity of the medium, Si substrate in this case, as well as the change in inter antenna distance.…”

“…ANTENNA STRUCTURE In previous paper [12], it has already been shown that that performance of the dipole antenna is better when there is no second metal layer on top of an antenna. For this, further investigation in this work has been made on the dipole antenna without any layer on top.…”

“…This A, being an array at different frequencies, has become constant for the antenna. The work so far has been delineated in [12] without the effect of variation of resistivity. As the gain of an antenna exponentially decreases with distance, equation (2) Hence the effect of the resistivity is incorporated in this model.…”

Performance of Intra-Chip Wireless Interconnect Using On-Chip Antennas and UWB Radios

“…There is no such limitation for monopoles. Recently a study reported in [7] also reveals that the vertically-excited monopole has better performance than the horizontally-excited dipole in silicon technology. It implies the monopole also has its advantages to be used for intra-chip wireless interconnect.…”

Design of silicon‐based fractal antennas

“…This integration can be extremely challenging at high frequencies. An on‐chip antenna negates the requirement of bond wires or off chip components, thus providing a robust solution in smaller form factors [3]. Silicon integrated antennas have been demonstrated previously [4–6], however, most of them are either bulky or narrow bandwidth.…”