Towards system-on-substrate approach for future millimeter-wave and photonic wireless applications

This paper reviews the state-of-the-art and underlying features of our proposed integration platforms for designing the next generation millimeter-wave and photonic wireless integrated circuits (ICs). Challenging issues and future R&D directions are discussed. Potential problems and possible solutions are also presented. It is believed that the newly proposed substrate integrated circuits (SICs) schemes will offer potentially cost-effective and performance promising solutions for widespread applications. With the development of new fabrication processes and synthetic waveguide techniques, unique hybrid and monolithic high-density 3-D integration of planar and non-planar structures (or called system-on-substrate (SoS) approaches) become realizable.