140-GHz Affordable Miniaturized Array Antenna-on-Package for Sub-THz Transceiver

In this paper, an affordable and miniaturized 140 GHz transmit/receive (TRX) array antenna on-package (AoP) is proposed through the conventional PCB process employing a single substrate. The proposed design approach involves an in-depth analysis of the potential performance degradation of an D-band antenna operating within a coarse process and pratical design guide for the configuration of the matching network packaging with robust wedge bonding. An asymmetric matching network design technique for a 1 x 4 array antenna packaging accounts the 1-bit digital beamforming capabilities of radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC). In a first-of-its-kind demonstration, AoP with 1 x 2 transmit and 1 x 4 receive antennas are packaged with RFIC is fabricated. The measurements arrayed maximum gains of the transmit and receive antennas were noted to be 9.8 dBi and 11.8 dBi, respectively. Also, the gain bandwidths of 12.6% for the transmit antenna and 20.4% for the receive antenna are achieved. This work marks the first instance of a TRX AoP being fabricated from a single RF metal layer via a width/gap process condition of 100/80 mu m in the D-band.