Novel Antenna-in-Package Design in LTCC for Single-Chip RF Transceivers

An antenna-in-package (AiP) design offers an elegant antenna solution to modern single-chip RF transceivers. The AiP design that integrates an antenna or antennas with a single-chip RF transceiver die into a standard surface mounted device represents an innovative and important development in the miniaturization of radio systems in recent years. In this paper, we present a novel AiP design in low temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC) technology for single-chip RF transceivers operating in the 5-GHz band. First, we focus on the design of a microstrip line antenna on an LTCC substrate. Then, a double-resonance technique and a meshed ground plane are proposed to enhance the impedance bandwidth of the microstrip line antenna. Next, the microstrip line antenna is integrated into the novel AiP with emphasis on feeding the microstrip line antenna using the packaging elements of the carried single-chip RF transceiver die. After that, a unique AiP design which supports the operation of differential signal to suit the mainstream design of single-chip RF transceivers in a differential architecture is described. Finally, the performance of the original AiP design is verified by experimental results.