RF and mm-wave SOP module platform using LCP and RF MEMS technologies

Author

Sarkar, S. ; Palazarri, V. ; Wang, G. ; Papageorgiou, N. ; Thompson, D. ; Lee, J.-H. ; Pinel, S. ; Tentzeris, M.M. ; Papapolymerou, J. ; Laskar, J.

Author_Institution

Georgia Electron. Design Center, Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta, GA, USA

Volume

2

fYear

2004

fDate

6-11 June 2004

Firstpage

567

Abstract

In this paper, we present a Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) based multilayer packaging technology combined with RF-MEMS technology and its emergence as an ideal platform for low cost, multi-band and reconfigurable RF front-end module integration. LCP´s very low water absorption (0.04%), low cost and high electrical performance makes it very appealing for RF applications. Here, we describe the characterization of LCP material up to W band, design of single input single output (SISO) dual band filters with insertion loss as low as 2.4 dB in L band and 1.8 dB in C band respectively. MEMS-SOP switch fabrication and finally integration of C band wireless LAN (WLAN) module demonstrates the potential for compact, multiband and reconfigurable systems. This is the first complete report on the combination of LCP with RF-MEMS technology as a new approach towards the System-On-Package (SOP) solutions for wireless communication applications.

Keywords

band-pass filters; liquid crystal polymers; microswitches; microwave switches; packaging; wireless LAN; 1.8 dB; 2.4 dB; C band; L band; MEMS-SOP switch fabrication; RF MEMS technology; SISO; W band; insertion loss; liquid crystal polymer; microelectromechanical system; millimetre wave SOP module platform; multilayer packaging technology; radiofrequency front end module integration; single input single output dual band filters; system on package; wireless LAN; Absorption; Costs; Dual band; Liquid crystal polymers; Nonhomogeneous media; Packaging; Radio frequency; Radiofrequency microelectromechanical systems; Switches; Wireless LAN;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest, 2004 IEEE MTT-S International

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8331-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2004.1336043

Filename

1336043