DC-To-50-GHz LTCC Package Suits MM-Wave MMICs

Feb. 13, 2008

SURFACE-MOUNT monolithic-microwave-integrated- circuit (MMIC) packages must contain high-performance vertical transitions. Usually, such a transition will use viaholes, which act as an inductance and generates a discontinuity. In contrast, Inkwon Ju, In-Bok Yom, and Seung-Hyeub Oh from ETRI's Satellite Communications RF Technology team have proposed a vertical transition that utilizes a trough line, slab line, and shielded multilayer coplanar waveguides (SMCPWs). This novel transition has made possible the development of a low-loss, low-temperature-co-fired-ceramic (LTCC), hermetic surface-mounting MMIC package with bandwidth of DC to 50 GHz.

For its construction, the vertical transition leverages the multiple transmission lines of the trough and slab lines. From DC to 53 GHz, the manufactured LTCC hermetic surfacemounting MMIC package showed an insertion loss of less than 0.6 dB and a reflection loss of under -20 dB. See "Low Loss DC to 50 GHz LTCC SMT Package for Millimeter Wave MMICs," Microwave And Optical Technology Letters, Jan. 2008, p. 24.

About the Author

Nancy Friedrich

RF Product Marketing Manager for Aerospace Defense, Keysight Technologies

Nancy Friedrich is RF Product Marketing Manager for Aerospace Defense at Keysight Technologies. Nancy Friedrich started a career in engineering media about two decades ago with a stint editing copy and writing news for Electronic Design. A few years later, she began writing full time as technology editor at Wireless Systems Design. In 2005, Nancy was named editor-in-chief of Microwaves & RF, a position she held (along with other positions as group content head) until 2018. Nancy then moved to a position at UBM, where she was editor-in-chief of Design News and content director for tradeshows including DesignCon, ESC, and the Smart Manufacturing shows.