This book presents the latest developments in packaging for high-frequency electronics. It is a companion volume to “RF and Microwave Microelectronics Packaging” (2010) and covers the latest developments in thermal management, electrical/RF/thermal-mechanical designs and simulations, packaging and processing methods, and other RF and microwave packaging topics. Chapters provide detailed coverage of phased arrays, T/R modules, 3D transitions, high thermal conductivity materials, carbon nanotubes and graphene advanced materials, and chip size packaging for RF MEMS. It appeals to practicing engineers in the electronic packaging and high-frequency electronics domain, and to academic researchers interested in understanding the leading issues in the commercial sector. It is also a good reference and self-studying guide for students seeking future employment in consumer electronics.

RF and Microwave Microelectronics Packaging presents the latest developments in packaging for high-frequency electronics. It will appeal to practicing engineers in the electronic packaging and high-frequency electronics fields and to academic researchers interested in understanding leading issues in the commercial sector. It covers the latest developments in thermal management, electrical/RF/thermal-mechanical designs and simulations, packaging and processing methods as well as other RF/MW packaging-related fields.

This book provides a system-level approach to making packaging decisions for millimeter-wave transceivers. In electronics, the packaging forms a bridge between the integrated circuit or individual device and the rest of the electronic system, encompassing all technologies between the two. To be able to make well-founded packaging decisions, researchers need to understand a broad range of aspects, including: concepts of transmission bands, antennas and propagation, integrated and discrete package substrates, materials and technologies, interconnects, passive and active components, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of various packages and packaging approaches, and package-level modeling and simulation. Packaging also needs to be considered in terms of system-level testing, as well as associated testing and production costs, and reducing costs. This peer-reviewed work contributes to the extant scholarly literature by addressing the aforementioned concepts and applying them to the context of the millimeter-wave regime and the unique opportunities that this transmission approach offers.

This peer-reviewed book explores the methodologies that are used for effective research, design and innovation in the vast field of millimeter-wave circuits, and describes how these have to be modified to fit the uniqueness of high-frequency nanoelectronics design. Each chapter focuses on a specific research challenge related to either small form factors or higher operating frequencies. The book first examines nanodevice scaling and the emerging electronic design automation tools that can be used in millimeter-wave research, as well as the singular challenges of combining deep-submicron and millimeter-wave design. It also demonstrates the importance of considering, in the millimeter-wave context, system-level design leading to differing packaging options. Further, it presents integrated circuit design methodologies for all major transceiver blocks typically employed at millimeter-wave frequencies, as these methodologies are normally fundamentally different from the traditional design methodologies used in analogue and lower-frequency electronics. Lastly, the book discusses the methodologies of millimeter-wave research and design for extreme or harsh environments, rebooting electronics, the additional opportunities for terahertz research, and the main differences between the approaches taken in millimeter-wave research and terahertz research.

In 1991 this author published a monograph[l] based on his experience teaching microwave hybrid materials and processing technology at the annual ISHM (now the International Microelectronics and Packaging Society, IMAPS) symposia. Since that time, the course has been presented at that venue and on-site at a number of industrial and government organizations. The course has been continually revised to reflect the many evolutionary changes in materials and processes. Microwave technology has existed for almost 175 years. It was only after the invention of the klystron, just before World War II, that microwave design and manufacture moved from a few visionaries to the growth the industry sees today. Over the last decade alone there have been exploding applications for all types of high frequency electronics in the miltary, automotive, wireless, computer, telecommunications and medical industries. These have placed demands, unimaginable a decade ago, on designs, materials, processes and equipment to meet the ever expanding requirements for increasingly reliable, smaller, faster and lower cost circuits.

Packaging of electronic components at microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies requires the same level of engineering effort for lower frequency electronics plus a set of additional activities which are unique due to the higher frequency of operation. This resource presents you with the electronic packaging issues unique to microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies and reviews lower frequency packaging techniques so they can be adapted to higher frequency designs. You are provided with 30 practical examples throughout the book, as well as three free downloadable software analysis programs.