60GHz wire-bond helical antennas in 130nm CMOS technology

This paper presents an on-chip helical antenna concept using bond wires and the top metal layer in a standard 130 nm CMOS technology. A row of top metal strips provide bonding pad positions for different antenna configurations. Two prototypes are fabricated targeting millimeter wave data link applications. The measured and simulated results show the center frequencies are 67.5 GHz and 85.0 GHz with -3.8 dBi and -4.9 dBi antenna gains, respectively. Both of the antennas occupy an area of 166 μm × 1600 μm with the same metal-strip pattern. However, different high-yield wire bonding patterns can lead to a variety of helical antenna options over a wide range of spectrum.