Efficient CMOS Systems With Beam-Lead Interconnects for Space Instruments

One of the main reasons CMOS systems has low overall efficiency is the performance of the on-chip antennas. With the recent severe metal density rules the problem has become more severe. Hence, antenna engineers need to move toward systems-in-package involving off-chip antenna solutions for high-efficiency performance. We introduce a new metal beam-lead interconnection technique which offers better matching control and lower loss at higher frequencies. The metal beam-lead interconnection appears to be a good solution for CMOS circuits at millimeter- and submillimeter-wave frequencies where off-chip connections are required. In this paper, we report performance of a 150 GHz CMOS transmitter which uses metal beam-lead interconnect between a high efficiency silicon antenna and a CMOS transmitter.