Page 287 - System on Package_ Miniaturization of the Entire System

CHAPTER 5

Radio Frequency System-

on-Package (RF SOP)

John Papapolymerou, Manos Tentzeris, Joy Laskar,
and Swapan Bhattacharya
Georgia Institute of Technology

5.1 Introduction 262 5.4 RF SOP Technologies 267
5.2 RF SOP Concept 262 5.5 Integrated RF Modules 308
5.3 Historical Evolution of RF Packaging 5.6 Future Trends 312
Technologies 265 References 314

he demand for increasingly higher rates of data, voice, and video together with
miniaturization of portable and wireless technologies (digital, analog, RF, and
Toptical) has driven the need for high-performance applications such as personal
communication networks, wireless local area networks (WLAN), “last-mile” RF-optical
networks, and millimeter-wave sensors. These RF and wireless applications have
defined a trend toward more flexible and reconfigurable systems, since they impose
very stringent specifications never reached before in terms of low noise, high linearity,
low power consumption, small size and weight, and low cost. The electronics packaging
industry has proliferated in this area to a point where this technology is at least equally,
if not more, important than the semiconductor technology it is supposed to serve.
In this chapter, the RF SOP component technologies, which include antennas,
inductors, capacitors, resistors, filters, baluns, power dividers, MEMS switches, and
MEMS capacitors, into highly integrated systems are presented. The substrate
technologies for these components include low-temperature cofired ceramics (LTCCs)
and organic technologies such as liquid crystal polymer (LCP). Two demonstration
vehicles are discussed for WLAN and personal communicator applications. This chapter
is not limited to just consumer applications but also includes space and defense
applications over multiple frequency bands.

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