Narrow film transmission lines and antennas

This paper reports our new achievement in developing high performance on silicon transmission lines and antennas. Narrow dielectric films with dimensions similar to signal lines and metallic patches (i.e., top conductors) are used as the substrate to realize these passive microwave components. As a result, the proposed transmission line shows 20% less attenuation and the proposed patch antenna demonstrates over 0.4 dB gain increase, with respect to the conventional thin film microwave structures. This simple design not only introduces considerable improvements, but also can facilitate the integration and make the circuit more compact.