Bottom-feed on-chip waveguide slot antenna for THz applications

A novel bottom-feed on-chip waveguide slot antenna is proposed for THz applications. The slot antenna is realized using an on-chip waveguide cavity whose top and bottom plates are realized using consists of metal-6 (M6) and metal-2 (M2) layers, respectively, and the sidewall is implemented using an array of vias from M2 to M6. Instead of the traditional feeding of microstrip/CPW on the sides, this antenna is fed from the bottom, which is more area-efficient and can avoid parasitic radiation from the feed line. The on-chip SIW cavity prevents radiation into the lossy substrate and thus improves the radiation of the slot antenna. The simulated gain is 3 dBi, and the radiation efficiency is around 33% at 450GHz. The total area of this antenna is only 330 × 290 μm².