Low-profile antenna for millimetre-wave chip-to-chip communication

Here, the authors report a low-profile antenna for millimetre-wave chip-to-chip communication. The height of the proposed antenna is limited to 0.18 mm, 1/20 wavelength at 80 GHz. To realise such a low profile, a zeroth-order resonator antenna with a periodic array of four unit cells was employed, and its geometry was optimised using a full-wave simulation tool to cover an 8 GHz bandwidth from 76 to 84 GHz. With this, the antenna was capable of radiating in the end-fire direction parallel to the board length despite the short distance between the ground and the radiator. Simulation and measurement results showed that the optimised design had low reflection coefficients and consistent radiation patterns throughout the target bandwidth.