A 0.04 cc Power Amplifier Module with Fully Integrated Passives in a Hybrid LTCC Substrate for 5-GHz Wireless LANs

A compact power amplifier (PA) module using a novel hybrid low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) substrate has been developed for 5-GHz wireless LANs (WLANs). Passive components were embedded in the multi-layer LTCC substrate, which was laminated with three types of dielectrics. The hybrid substrate makes it possible to reduce component area and minimize RF coupling among the components. These improvements allowed us to integrate matching and bias networks within a compact 5 × 5 × 1.4 mm3 (= 0.04 cc) module size. The PA module was accurately designed using a passive component library developed based on EM (electromagnetic) simulation. The fabricated module exhibited power performance sufficient for 5-GHz WLANs, i.e., - linear gain of 25 dB and output 1-dB compression power (P1dB) of 21 dBm with power added efficiency (PAE) of 19%. This is the first report of a PA module with fully embedded matching networks in an LTCC substrate for 5-GHz Wireless LANs.