A high performance plastic air-cavity QFN solution for future potential microwave package large scale application

A potential large scale QFN package solution-plastic air-cavity QFN package, compatible with SMD assembly lines, for future low cost, miniature size and attractive performance microwave package application is proposed in this paper. A 6 GHz~18 GHz LNA MMIC (2 × 1mm²) is developed using a commercial GaAs pHEMT process and integrated into this novel and cost effective package solution. The measured results (not de-embedded with test fixture) show that noise figure is less than 2.75 dB, and input return loss is below 10dB, moreover small signal gain is more than 19.3 dB and gain flatness is ±1.75dB with 4 × 4 mm² packaged area and DC power dissipation 120 mW across 6 GHz to 18 GHz.