Innovative Propagation Mechanism for Inter-chip and Intra-chip Communication

SoC (System on chip) technology has rapidly developed in recent years, stimulating emerging research areas such as investigating the efficacy of wireless network interconnection within a single chip or between multiple chips. However the design of the on-chip antenna faces the challenge of obtaining high radiation efficiency and transmission gain due to conductive loss of the silicon substrate. A new on-chip propagation mechanism of radio waves, which takes advantage of the un-doped silicon layer, is developed in order to overcome this challenge. It was found that by properly designing the dimension of silicon wafer, the un-doped silicon layer is able to act like a waveguide. Most of the energy is directed to the approximately lossless the un-doped silicon layer of high resistivity instead of attenuating in the doped silicon substrate or radiating to the air. HFSS modeling and simulation results are provided to show that efficiency, gain and directivity of the on-chip antenna are greatly improved. In addition, this type of antennas can be easily reconfigured, which as a result, makes wireless SoCs with wireless interconnects or even a wireless network on PCB (Printed Circuit Board) possible.