The role of EM modeling in integrated packaging

R&D in industry and government laboratories has initiated an effort to address the critical problems of packaging in a way which links electrical performance with thermal and mechanical properties. MIC (microwave integrated circuit) and MMIC (monolithic MIC) packages that are capable of good performance at frequencies as high as 60 GHz need to have the following characteristics: low insertion loss and voltage standing wave ratio per lead feedthrough, good isolation between leads, microstrip or coplanar line compatibility, low cost in reasonable volume, thermally acceptable, hermetically sealable, and small volume and low weight. Lastly but most importantly they should exhibit negligible electrical interference with the rest of the circuit. A variety of techniques which can be employed to analyze packaging effects in the frequency and time domains have been examined.<>