0.42 THz Transmitter with Dielectric Resonator Array Antenna

THz;Antenna;DRA;Array;mmWave;Tripler;RF;Analog

Holisaz, Hamedaffiliation1:Faculty of Engineering ; advisor:Safavi Naeini, Safieddin ; Safavi Naeini, Safieddin ;

University of Waterloo

关键词: Array;    mmWave;    DRA;    Tripler;    RF;    Analog;    THz;    Doctoral Thesis;    Antenna;   

Others  :  https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/10012/14819/1/Holisaz_Hamed.pdf

瑞士|英语

来源: UWSPACE Waterloo Institutional Repository

【 摘 要 】

Off chip antennas do not occupy the expensive die area, as there is no limitation on theirbuilding material, and can be built in any size and shape to match the system requirements, whichare all in contrast to on-chip antenna solutions. However, integration of off-chip antennas withMonolithic-Microwave-Integrated Chips (MMIC) and designing a low loss signal transmissionfrom the signal source inside the MMIC to the antenna module is a major challenge and trade off.High resistivity silicon (HRS), is a low cost and extremely low loss material at sub-THz. It hasbecome a prevailing material in fabrication of passive components for THz applications. This workmakes use of HRS to build an off-chip Dielectric Resonator Antenna Array Module (DRAAM) torealize a highly efficient transmitter at 420 GHz. This work proposes novel techniques andsolutions for design and integration of DRRAM with MMIC as the signal source. A proposedscalable 4×4 antenna structure aligns DRRAM on top of MMIC within 2 μm accuracy through aneffortless assembly procedure. DRAAM shows 15.8 dB broadside gain and 0.85 efficiency.DRAs in the DRAAM are differentially excited through aperture coupling. Differentialexcitation not only inherently provides a mechanism to deliver more power to the antenna, it alsoremoves the additional loss of extra balluns when outputs are differential inside MMIC. Inaddition, this work proposes a technique to double the radiation power from each DRA. Sameradiating mode at 0.42 THz inside every DRA is excited through two separate differential sources.This approach provides an almost loss-less power combining mechanism inside DRA. Two140_GHz oscillators followed by triplers drive each DRA in the demonstrated 4×4 antenna array.Each oscillator generates 7.2 dBm output power at 140 GHz with -83 dBc/Hz phase noise at 100KHz and consumes 25 mW of power. An oscillator is followed by a tripler that generates -8 dBmoutput power at 420 GHz. Oscillator and tripler circuits use a smart layer stack up arrangement fortheir passive elements where the top metal layer of the die is grounded to comply with the plannedintegration arrangement. This work shows a novel circuit topology for exciting the antennaelement which creates the feed element part of the tuned load for the tripler circuit, thereforeeliminates the loss of the transition component, and maximizes the output power delivered to theantenna. The final structure is composed of 32 injection locked oscillators and drives a 4×4DRAAM achieves 22.8 dBm EIRP.