High-efficiency wire bond antennas for on-chip radios

In this paper we present an integrated high-efficiency wire bond antenna for on-chip radios. Measured and simulated results are presented for the radiation pattern, gain, and radiation efficiency of a 40-GHz wire bond antenna. In particular, we discuss the antenna characteristics when the antenna is a) placed on a silicon substrate having an ideal ground plane and b) placed on an actual SiGe RF CMOS transceiver. The measured gains for the first case range from 0.4 dBi to 3.6 dBi for ground plane sizes of 0.5 lambda² to 2.1 lambda², respectively, after numerically removing the 1.2 dB loss from the feeding line. These correspond to extracted radiation efficiencies of 51% to 84%. For the second case, the measured gain is -1.4 dBi resulting in a radiation efficiency of 51%. Given the design simplicity and low-cost fabrication process, these antennas are particularly attractive for high-frequency on-chip radios.