HMIC wafer level packaging

HMIC, an acronym for Heterolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits, is fundamentally a wafer level substrate which combines low, RF loss tangent glass with micromachined silicon to produce three dimensional circuitry with the capability to make RF, DC, and thermal vias as the device input and output. Using this technology both active and passive RF devices have been produced which have demonstrated excellent high frequency performance over a very broad range of frequencies from 1 MHz to as high as 110 GHz. This paper describes the development of a unique microwave and mmW packaging technique based upon the broadband high frequency properties of the basic HMIC technology. More specifically the results of utilizing the high frequency, 3-dimensional integration properties to provide a packaging medium that will enable active components, whether in flip chip or bondable configurations and including silicon, GaAs, or InP mixed materials, to be combined to create a surface mount wafer level multichip module is presented. It will be shown that this basic HMIC technology can also be applied to enable the incorporation of a hermetic solder seal silicon lid.