Challenges and approaches to on-chip millimeter wave antenna pattern measurements

Abstract

We present two methods to remove wafer probe interference radiation from measured on-chip antenna patterns performed in a probe station environment. On-chip antenna pattern and gain measurements are affected by parasitic probe tip radiation as well as scattered energy from the metal probe station environment. In this work, we use superposition and S-parameter techniques to de-embed the effects of probe tip radiation. On-chip Dipole, Yagi, and Rhombic antennas were fabricated using standard 180nm CMOS, and radiation patterns were measured at 60 GHz. This work shows methods that improve the ability to reliably design, predict, and measure on-chip antenna patterns.