High-efficiency 60 GHz antenna fabricated using low-cost silicon micromachining techniques

This paper reports for the first time high-efficiency 60 GHz antennas fabricated using silicon micromachining techniques yielding both wide bandwidth and a uniform radiation pattern. The assembled antennas consist of an antenna structure on one substrate facing a 400 μm deep metallized cavity on a secondary substrate. In order to obtain the desired efficiency, the silicon on the antenna wafers was thinned to a thickness of 150 μm using a backside polish process. The measured resonant frequency of the antennas was very close to simulated values, and the gain was between 6-8 dBi in the frequency range of 60-65 GHz with a well defined uniform radiation pattern. The next step in this project is to develop a complete silicon-based low-cost mmWave package incorporating IBM's existing Transmit and Receive SiGe8HP chips [4] with interconnects, thru-wafer vias and antennas, suitable for the emerging IEEE 802.15.3c multi-Gbps wireless data and automotive radar markets. © 2007 IEEE.