Soldered hot-via E-band and W-band power amplifier MMICs for millimeter-wave chip scale packaging

Novel and realistic application of hot-via interconnects to millimeter-wave active and power MMICs is demonstrated for the first time. Power amplifier MMICs in the 80- and 100-GHz range were successfully designed, assembled, and characterized for wire-bond free chip interconnect technology. With hot...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in2016 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium (IMS) pp. 1 - 4
Main Authors Bessemoulin, Alexandre, Rodriguez, Melissa C., Mahon, Simon J., Parker, Anthony E., Heimlich, Michael C.
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 01.05.2016
Subjects
Chip-Scale Package
E-band
Frequency measurement
Hot-via interconnects
Integrated circuit interconnections
millimeter-wave
MMIC
MMICs
Power amplifiers
Power generation
Power measurement
Radio frequency
W-band
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Novel and realistic application of hot-via interconnects to millimeter-wave active and power MMICs is demonstrated for the first time. Power amplifier MMICs in the 80- and 100-GHz range were successfully designed, assembled, and characterized for wire-bond free chip interconnect technology. With hot-via RF transitions, compact E-band power amplifier MMICs directly soldered onto evaluation boards demonstrate 22-dB gain and over 28-dBm output power in the ETSI band of 81-86 GHz, with little performance degradation compared to reference circuits probed with traditional front-side RF pads. Similarly, a broadband amplifier, when interconnected to its matching PCB, delivers 13-dB of gain in the W-band, and 21-dBm P 1dB . To the author's knowledge, this work represents the highest frequency demonstration of any soldered millimeter-wave hot-via active circuits onto standard PCBs, with remarkable measured power performance, closely equaling that of ideally front-side RF probed PA MMICs.
DOI:10.1109/MWSYM.2016.7540025