Study of solid state plasma reconfigurable dipole based on SPiN diodes for high-integration communications

Abstract

A new solid state plasma reconfigurable dipole based on surface PiN diodes is presented for high-integration communications in this paper. The proposed antenna consists of several solid state plasma diode elements, which use the microwave characteristics of solid state plasma to realize the radiation and reception of electromagnetic waves. The plasma diode is designed and fabricated on a silicon-on-insulator wafer, and its size is 50 × 100 μm2. Measured results show that the plasma region appeared to be metal-like (carrier concentration is exceeding 1018 cm−3) when a forward bias is applied, and its steady-state current can reach 0.02 A. Based on these results, a high-integration reconfigurable dipole is designed with two working states at 2.21 and 3.01 GHz, and the overall dimensions of this dipole are 40 × 40 mm2. Other radiation performances are also discussed in this paper, which lay a good foundation for further studies.