On-Chip Wireless Interconnection with Integrated Antennas
Kihong Kim, Hyun Yoon, and Kenneth K. 0
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, SiMICs
539 Eng. Bldg., University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 3261 1, USA
Tel: 352-392-6276, Fax: 352-392-8381, e-mail: kkh@tec.ufl.edu
Abstract
The feasibility of integrated antennas for a wireless clock
distribution system is investigated. A wide range of linear,
meander, zigzag dipole, and loop antennas on 10 and 20 51
cm silicon and SOS substrates has been experimentally evalu-
ated. A 2-mm long, 30-pm wide, 30-degree zigzag dipole
antenna pair on a 20 51cm silicon substrate has -56 dB of
transmission gain near 18 GHz. A loopzigzag pair shows
similar gain. The loop antenna with a compact size and an
isotropic radiation pattern is ideal for a transmitter antenna.
Introduction
The increases in operating frequency and projected die
size to 4 x 2.5 cm2 for CMOS circuits have led to the concept
for wireless communications within and between ICs using
microwaves which enables signal distribution at the speed of
light, and provides an additional means for signal distribu-
tion. A potential application is wireless clock distribution,
proposed as an alternative capable of distributing high fre-
quency clock [I]. The wireless clock distribution system con-
sists of a clock transmitter, located on or off chip,
broadcasting a microwave global clock signal at frequencies
-20 GHz or higher, and a grid of integrated clock receivers
(Fig. 1 (a)). The signal picked up by a receiving antenna is
divided down to the system clock frequency (-2.5 GHz) (Fig.
1 (b)), and locally distributed using a conventional clock tree.
For this type of systems, integration of compact antennas is
critical. The high frequency clock transmission reduces the
antenna size due to a decreased wavelength. The antenna size
is largely set by the power gain requirement for the transmit-
ting and receiving antennas, which is in turn set by the power
delivered to the transmitting antenna and the sensitivity of the
clock receiver. This paper reports approaches to improve on-
chip linear, meander, zigzag dipole [2], and loop antennas,
and suggests the feasibility of using them for communication
in an area around a radius of 2 cm.
Antenna Test Structure
The antenna test structures were fabricated using a single
Aluminum level process with no passivation. The thickness
of the metal line is 2 pm.The test chips (Fig. 2) include linear,
meander, zigzag dipole, and loop antennas. The area of
testchips is -5 x 4 cm2, which is bigger than that projected by
the road map. The micro-photographs of the antennas are
shown in Fig. 3. The distance between receiving and trans-
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mitting antennas is 1 cm for all antenna pairs except for the
antenna pairs used to generate Figs. 11 and 12.
Experimental Results
The set-up used for S-parameter measurements of on-
chip antennas is shown in Fig. 4. The set-up consists of a vec-
tor network analyzer, baluns, signal-signal probes, and a
probe station [3]. Since the ports of the network analyzer are
unbalanced and the dipole antennas are balanced, baluns and
signal-signal probes were used to reduce the balanced-to-
unbalanced mismatch loss. Wafers are measured on a block
of wood (6 mm thick) on a metal chuck of the probe station.
The phase delay between receiving and transmitting
antennas is extracted from S-parameters and is shown in Fig.
5 . The plot shows that the phase delay has almost linear rela-
tionship with frequency, which illustrates that the signal cou-
pling between the receiving and transmitting antennas occurs
through wave propagation rather than simple RC coupling.
The power transmission relation between a receiving and
a transmitting antenna is represented by Friis transmission
formula [4] given below.
P,/P,=IS21 12=( 1- q2)[
1-lrJ2)( GtG,h2/(4~R)2] (1)
In this equation, the first two terms represents mismatch loss
at the receiving and transmitting ends, and the last term rep-
resents the actual antenna transmission gain (G,) between the
receiving and transmitting antennas. In this paper, the
antenna transmission gain (G,) has been used to compare
antenna characteristics and is computed from measurements
using
G, is the antenna transmission gain when the receiving and
transmitting antennas are perfectly matched.
Fig. 6 shows a G, versus antenna length plot for dipoles
fabricated on a 20-Q-cm substrate at 15 GHz. The metal
width of the antennas is 10 pm. The plot shows that the 5-
mm antenna pair has -30 dB higher gain than the l-mm
antenna pair. A zigzag antenna pair has higher gain than a
linear dipole antenna pair. Impedances of the zigzag dipole
antennas are computed from the measured S-parameters and
are shown in Fig. 7. The impedance of an on-chip antenna
consists of the radiation impedance and impedance associ-
IEDM 00-485
 ated with the metal structure and substrate. The plot shows
that at 15 GHz, the 1-mm antenna has the highest resistance,
which is mostly due to the high substrate resistance compo-
nent. For 2-mm and up, as the antenna is lengthened, the
resistance increases. This is due to a decrease of the substrate
resistance component and an increase of the radiation and
loss resistance. The 5-mm antenna shows the lowest reac-
tance due to the highest metal-to-substrate parasitic capaci-
tance. Fig. 8 shows a G, versus the metal width plot at 15
GHz for 2-mm long zigzag dipole antennas. A 10-dB gain
increase can be achieved by widening the antennas from 2.5
pm to 30 pm. The gain increase is attributed to the lower loss
resistance of antenna arms, which increases the power effi-
ciency. The measurements also show that the gain increase
slows for widths greater than 10 pm. Fig. 9 shows a G, ver-
sus bend angle plot for zigzag dipole antennas. The bend
angle is the angle between two neighboring arm elements as
shown in the inset of Fig. 9. The metal width and axial length
of the antennas are 10 ym and 2 mm. The antenna with a
bend angle of 30 degree has -6 dB higher gain than the
antenna with a bend angle of 120-degree.
The measurements discussed thus far were made with
antennas on a 20 Q-cm silicon substrate with a 9-pm thick
oxide layer. In order to study the gain dependence on sub-
strate, the antennas were fabricated on 10 and 20 SZcm sili-
con substrates with an 1, 3, or 9 pm oxide layer, and an SOS
substrate. The antenna transmission gains were measured
using 2-mm 120-degree zigzag dipole antennas (Fig. 10).
-
The antennas on a 20-Q-cm substrate show 7 dB higher
gain than the antennas on a 10-Q-cm substrate. The measure-
ments also show that the oxide thickness does not signifi-
cantly affect the gain for the antennas on the 20-0-cm
substrate. Since antennas on an SOS substrate do not suffer
from the substrate loss, these antennas show the highest gain
(-35 dB at 15 GHz). The impedance measurements show that
the oxide thickness mainly affects the reactance while keep-
ing the resistance almost the same.
Based on these results, 2-mm long, 30-pm wide, 30-
degree zigzag dipole antenna pairs with a separation of 1 and
2 cm are implemented and their G, versus frequency plots are
shown in Fig. 11. The antennas were fabricated on a 3-ym
oxide layer on a 20-0-cm silicon substrate. The gain
increases with frequency and decreasing separation. G, is - -
56 dB for the 2-cm separation near 18 GHz. Fig. 11 also
shows that S21 for an open structure consisting of pads is at
the noise floor which is around -30 dB lower than S21 for the
1-cm separation case.
Fig. 12 shows G, measurements for a loop-zigzag dipole
antenna pair. The loop antenna has a single loop with a diam-
eter of 200 ym and metal width of 30 ym. The zigzag dipole
is the same as that used to generate Fig. 11. The gain of the
loop-zigzag pair is similar to that of a 2-mm zigzag dipole
pair near 18 GHz. G, is -60 dB for the 2-cm separation near
18 GHz. As shown in Fig. 13, loop antennas have an isotropic
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486-IEDM 00
radiation pattern on the wafer plane, and was measured using
loopzigzag dipole antenna pairs. Fig. 14 shows G, of loop
antennas with 5 different metal widths. Loop antennas show
similar gain dependence on metal widths as the dipole anten-
nas. Since a loop antenna has an isotropic radiation pattern
and compact size, it can be a good transmitting antenna.
Discussion
There are three main paths for electromagnetic wave
transmission from an on-chip antenna [6].One path is along
the surface (surface wave) and the other two are through and
below the substrate (Fig. 15). Fig. 16 shows G, of a zigzag
dipole pair on a metal plate and on a block of wood. The
antenna separation is 0.5 cm. When an on-chip antenna pair
on a 20-Q-cm substrate is put on a metal plate, the surface
wave dominates. When it is put on a block of wood, all three
paths are possible. The antenna p k r on a wood block has at
least 3-dB higher gain. This suggests that a significant portion
of power is transmitted through and below the substrate.
Inside of ICs, a large number of metal structures are present
as shown in Fig.15. In that case, antennas can be imple-
mented with the lowest level metal, and using a dielectric
layer more compatible to IC packaging than a block of wood
or a thicker higher resistivity silicon substrate, it should be
possible to propagate a signal through and below the sub-
strate.
Conclusion
A 7.4 GHz clock receiver in a 0.25-ym CMOS technology
can lock to a -43 dBm input signal [5].According to Fig. 11,
a 2-mm zigzag dipole antenna pair with a 2-cm separation has
-56dB gain near 18 GHz. Since the gains of dipole and loop-
dipole pairs are comparable near I8 GHz, these impIy that if
the antennas, receiver and transmitter are matched, then, in
the absence of interference structure, a clock receiver with a
zigzag dipole antenna 2 cm away from a transmitter using an
isotropic loop antenna should be able lock to a 20-dBm clock
signal delivered to the transmitting antenna. If the operating
frequency is increased, the required transmission power is
expected to be lowered.
References
[l] K. 0,et al., Inter and Intra-Chip Wireless Clock Signal Distri-
bution Using Microwaves: A Status of an Initial Feasibility Study,
1999 GOMAC (Invited), pp 306-309.
[2] H. Nakano, et al., Shortening Ratios of Modified Dipole Anten-
nas, IEEE Trans. on AP, v 32, n 4, Apr 1984, p. 385.
[3] K. Kim and K. 0, Integrated Dipole Antennas on Silicon Sub-
strates for Intra-Chip Communication, 1999 IEEE AP-S Int. Symp.,
pp 1582-1585.
[4] C. A. Balanis, Antenna Theory, Harper & Row 1982.
[5] B. Floyd, K. Kim, and K. 0, Wireless Interconnection in a
CMOS IC with Integrated Antennas, ISSCC Digest, Feb, 2000, pp
328-329.
[6] K. Kim, Ph. D. Dissertation, University of Florida, 2000.
 6 -200

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Fig. 6 G , vs axial length at 15 GHz.

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Fig. 8 G , vs metal width at 15 GHz.
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 18
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60 90 120 150
Bend Angle (Degree)
270
Fig. 9 G, vs bend angle at 15 GHz.
Loop: Diameter 200 pm,metal width 10 pm
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Fig. 10 G, vs resistivity and oxide thickness of a 2-mm long,

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