Advanced ceramic packaging for microwave and millimeter wave applications

Advances in integrated circuit technologies have produced devices with higher speeds, frequencies, powers, and functional complexity. In addition, these attributes have been realized with smaller and smaller semiconductor devices. Such improvements are primarily due to the effective control and management of wafer-scale interconnect technology. It has become apparent, however, that the next level of interconnect technology to be addressed is in the packaging of these high performance semiconductors. As frequency or speed increases, packaging can quickly become the chief inhibitor to electrical response by degrading signal propagation or by contributing to structural configurations that foster cavity resonances or waveguide modes. The paper attempts to lay out the electrical, structural, material, and cost considerations that need to be simultaneously addressed by the microwave engineer to design the best interconnection method possible between the die and the subsystem. Several packaging concepts are reviewed-from single transition design to multilayer, multichip modules for phased-array applications