Design of silicon-based fractal antennas

This article presents Sierpinski carpet fractal antennas implemented in conventional low resistivity (rho =10 Omega cm) as well as high resistivity (rho =1500 Omega cm) silicon mediums. The fractal antenna is 36% smaller as compared with a typical patch antenna at 24 GHz and provides 13% bandwidth on high resistivity silicon, suitable for high data rate applications. For the first time, an on-chip fractal antenna array is demonstrated in this work which provides double the gain of a single fractal element as well as enhanced bandwidth. A custom test fixture is utilized to measure the radiation pattern and gain of these probe-fed antennas. In addition to gain and impedance characterization, measurements have also been made to study intrachip communication through these antennas. The comparison between the low resistivity and high resistivity antennas indicate that the former is not a suitable medium for array implementation and is only suitable for short range communication whereas the latter is appropriate for short and medium range wireless communication. The design is well-suited for compact, high data rate System-on-Chip (SoC) applications as well as for intrachip communication such as wireless global clock distribution in synchronous systems. (C) 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:180186, 2013; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.27245