An X-band compact micromachined dipole antenna for remote sensing applications

The study of a printed zigzag antenna on a high resistivity silicon substrate is presented. The compact on chip antenna allows for length reduction over the traditional half wave dipole by approximately 10%. The antenna operates at 10 GHz, and by micromachining a quarter of the physical length of the antenna on 2mm² SiO₂ membrane using dry etch techniques, an increase in the resonant frequency of 0.4 GHz was obtained. An improvement in the return loss and impedance bandwidth of the antenna was achieved at -5 dB and 4% respectively.