Abstract:To meet the needs of terahertz imaging and communication, a 420-GHz on-chip antenna (OCA) with high gain and high radiation efficiency is designed using a standard 55 nm CMOS technology. In the proposed OCA structure, the substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) antenna forms a back cavity to suppress the surface waves and separate the radiation aperture from the low-resistivity substrate. To increase the efficiency of OCA, a single-layer quartz superstrate is proposed. An analytical model to calculate the radiation efficiency is presented, and a detailed design approach is described. The proposed antenna is simulated using Ansoft HFSS. The simulated antenna has a maximum gain of 4.9 dBi and a radiation efficiency of 76.27%. The bandwidth of S11 below −10 dB is 44 GHz. The OCA has good performance and can be widely used in terahertz imaging and communication.