A V-Band On-Wafer Near-Field Antenna Measurement System Using an IC Probe Station

Most on-wafer antenna radiation pattern measurement systems at a frequency range above the V-band require a testing range to satisfy the far-field condition and a sample holder for probing. Because the testing range and the sample holder must be customized, building this kind of testing environment increased cost of standard integrated circuit (IC) measurement facilities. To address this problem, this study presents an on-wafer measurement system for a V-band on-chip antenna using a probe station for IC measurements. This study uses the near-field antenna measurement technique to decrease the distance between the receiving antenna and the antenna under test (AUT). Therefore, this system effectively uses the limited space around the chuck as the testing range. As a result, this design avoids the reflective objects that constitute the probe station. This study also presents a low-scattering probe to further reduce the scattering. A standard pyramidal horn antenna and a wide beamwidth, 74-GHz on-chip antenna on a 100-μm GaAs substrate were measured to verify system performance. The measured antenna radiation patterns show that the proposed measurement system improves the scanning angle and significantly reduces the unwanted scattering.