Fine Pitch D-Band Transmit Modules with Flip-Chip Aperture Coupled Antennas

A 2×2 D-band phased array Tx module is designed in 22-nm CMOS FDSOI. The module fully integrates the D-band signal generation, beamforming and antenna coupling structures. The modules' on-chip PAs aperture couple to off-chip patch antennas on a commercial PCB and are assembled with standard flip-chip bonding. A 2×4 array using two of the modules has a bandwidth of 14.7 GHz (128.8 to 143.5 GHz), achieves an element spacing of
$0.6 A$
at 140 GHz, a peak EIRP of +23.6 dBm, a scan range of ±40°, and dissipates 77 m W per element.