A 77 GHz on-chip strip dipole antenna integrated with balun circuits for automotive radar

In this paper, design and implementation of a 77 GHz on-chip strip dipole antenna integrated with both lumped and transmission line based balun circuits are presented. The on-chip antenna is realized by using IHP’s 0.25 μm SiGe BiCMOS technology with localized back-side etch (LBE) module to decrease substrate loss. The strip dipole antenna is fed by both a lumped LC circuit and strip line tapered baluns integrated on the same substrate and occupies an area of 1x1.2 mm2 including the RF pads. For increased directivity, the antenna sits on a grounded silicon substrate. Experimental results show that antenna is well matched around the design frequency and achieves 7 GHz impedance bandwidth (minimum return loss of 17 dB) for the LC balun circuit. The antenna and its feeding structure are well suited for 77 GHz single chip automotive radar applications.