A “microSD”sized RF transceiver manufactured as an embedded system-in-package

This paper brings into light the first prototype miniaturized system-in-package (SiP) microsystems built for wireless body-area-network medical devices which mandate low power consumption and extreme packaging miniaturization. Specifically, this paper focuses on the fabrication of a remote controller for wireless medical devices in the practical shape of an extended “microSD” card where the extended part will co-integrate a passive antenna. Actually the microSd card is a RF transceiver enclosing an advanced SoC, MEMS filters, flash memory and other passive components. The presented paper describes in detail all manufacturing steps for the realization of the extended “microSD” card and all technology developments achieved to reach this goal. Firstly, a 2-layer substrate has been successfully produced with 35μm ultra fine line copper structuring in conjunction with 75μm through-vias using subtractive technology. Subsequently, assembly technologies for heterogeneous BAN components were further developed in order to achieve the placement of the tiny IF SAW filters and BAW resonators on the substrate and to implement mixed assembly of soldered passives with fluxed chip packages. Finally, the paper highlights the embedding technology employed in the project for the manufacturing of the microSD cards on 18”x24” large panels. The extended microSD card will be used for testing, programming and controlling all vital SoC functions in the wireless medical devices. It has a size of 11mm×22mm×1.05mm with the antenna part occupying a space of 11mm×7mm×1.05mm.