Integrated dipole antennas on silicon substrates for intra-chip communication

To study the feasibility of integrating the antennas in integrated circuits, short linear, meander, and zigzag dipole antennas were implemented on silicon wafers using processing steps compatible with the silicon IC technology. The axial length of the antennas is 2 mm and the width of the metal liner is 10 /spl mu/m. From phase delay measurements, it is shown that EM waves predominantly travel through the silicon substrate. The transmission gain (received power/available transmitted power) dependence on distance is greater than expected. Meander dipole antennas have 3-5 dB higher gains than the other antennas. The input impedances of these antennas can be modeled well using lumped elements. This paper demonstrated that wireless communication within silicon ICs is possible.