A low-cost, encapsulated flip-chip package on organic substrate for wideband gallium nitride (GaN) hybrid amplifiers

In this paper, the authors present an embedded, low-cost packaging technique for high power gallium nitride devices. The package is based on flip-chip bonding to achieve a reduced parasitic inductance, easing the design for wideband amplifiers. The backside of the gallium nitride devices is connected to a heat sink by a second flip-chip process to improve thermal management. When realized on a low-cost organic substrate material with poor thermal characteristics, measurement results show that the proposed packaging technique can still achieve performance levels comparable to devices packaged on expensive, high thermal conductivity substrate materials, such as aluminum nitride. These results demonstrate a low-cost, high-performance and near-hermetically sealed packaging solution for gallium nitride devices.