Integrated dielectric resonator antennas for system on-chip applications

Recently significant progress in radio frequency on-chip antennas has been demonstrated in view of the advancement in silicon technology. However, the practical uses of these antennas were limited mainly because of the conductor losses in the antenna as well as substrate, surface wave effects and difficulty of integration. To overcome some of these disadvantages, integrated dielectric resonator antennas on silicon substrates are being investigated. The study revealed that, the characteristics of investigated integrated on-chip dielectric resonator antennas are far better than previous antenna types fabricated on silicon substrate of the same resistivity. This paper briefly reviews the different feeding mechanisms tried and reports an integrated on-chip dielectric resonator antenna with high gain, reasonably wide bandwidth and good radiation performance demonstrated for millimeter-wave applications.