A 3-D Heterogeneously Integrated Application of the RF-Module With Micro-Bump Filter and Embedded AiP at <i>W</i>-Band

Abstract

In this study, we present the design, fabrication, and measurements of a 3-D heterogeneous integrated RF-module at W-band. A 3-D transition structure based on micro-bumps is fabricated and measured to obtain the transition loss of one bump. One micro-bump has an insertion loss of 0.21 dB at the W-band. A packaged filter and a benzocyclobutene (BCB)-based back cavity antenna are designed and analyzed in detail. The filter has a 2.6-dB insertion loss at 94 GHz with four transmission zeros (TZs) and a <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2.14f_{0}~10$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-dB stopband. An extra loss of 0.9 dB is found after packaging. Then, the filter and antenna are integrated with a SiGe-based low-noise amplifier (LNA) and a mixer to realize a fully packaged receiver by using our in-house Si-based micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) through-silicon-trench (TST) technology and multilayer photosensitive composite film. The proposed 3-D heterogeneous integrated receiver is measured on-wafer. This low-loss packaging solution can be further used in millimeter-wave communication or radar systems.