ABSTRACT
The vision for a single-chip radio has been in existence for many years. There also have been numerous claims of single-chip radios. A single-chip radio is an integrated circuit (IC) that can accomplish transmit and receive functions without any off-chip components. An on-chip antenna is a key component of a single-chip radio. Use of on-chip antennas eliminates the need for high-frequency wired input/output, thus avoiding the losses of radio frequency (RF) chip-to-PC-board and transmission line connections. The antenna is fabricated using a metallization scheme commonly used in silicon IC processes and is separated from the silicon substrate by a SiO2 layer. One of the main challenges in designing a single-chip radio is the integration of a high-stability frequency reference. Large signals from an on-chip power amplifier and a transmit antenna could couple to other sensitive RF circuits, such as low-noise amplifier and voltage controlled oscillator, and disrupt their operation.
