Nano-electronic devices have attracted much attention for the radio frequency engineering community in recent years. They not only exhibit compelling characteristics but show promises to enhance the miniaturization of modern devices. Carbon nanotubes and conducting nanowires are believed to be potential building blocks for ultra-small chip of the future. Metallic wires have long been utilized as the passive components in the RF integrated circuit but there are very few studies on their nanoscale counterpart particularly up to millimeter-wave frequencies. The focus of this thesis is to explore RF properties of metallic nanowires and their potentials to be integrated in CMOS communication technology. In this thesis, transmission lines and on-chip antennas integrated with metallic nanowires were developed enabled by top-down fabrication processes. The signal transmission properties of such devices were characterized well into the mm-wave regime based on two-port S-parameters measurement. Two types of nano-transmission lines were designed: thin film microstrip lines and coplanar waveguides. Their transmission characteristics as a function of frequencies were analysed. Different parameters like the linewidth, thickness, number of nanowires, and the distance between the wires were examined. In addition, a quasi-TEM propagation model was proposed to provide a further insight into the physical behaviours of the nanowires. Moreover, a comprehensive study regarding the de-embedding techniques was carried out in order to improve measurement accuracy. Meanwhile, on-chip dipoles and planar meander-line inverted–F antenna were implemented to test the wireless signal transmission of the metallic nanowires. Various wires dimensions and substrates were designed to exploit their characteristics thus facilitating better transmission.
