Highly Integrated 3D RF Front-Ends for Convergent Applications: Status and Challenges

Опубликовано 6 сентября 2016, 6:12

Recently, there has been a lot of dicussion about the convergence of telecommunications, entertainment and computing. Various standards covering PAN (Bluetooth, Zigbee, UWB), LAN (802.11 a,b,g,n), WAN (WiMax, DVB) are competing for various environments and applications. In addition to these, 3G/4G cell phones not only continue to integrate consumer functions (photo, video, audio) but also high speed data with HSDPA. One of the major challenges for multiband/multistandard operation are the codesign of SOC and SOP, the integrated antennas in scalable architectures as well as the effective isolation and the minimized crosstalk between the different front-ends. Millimeter-wave frequency range (60 GHz) has also been proposed as an alternative for short-range broadband applications (in excess of 2.5 Gb/sec, e.g. for uncompressed video). The current drawbacks of most commercially available microwave and millimeter wave front-ends for 3G/4G/WLAN/RFID/UWB and Sensor applications are their relatively large size, heavy weight primarily caused by discrete components such as the inductors and the filters, and separately located modules. Multi-layer ceramic (e.g.LTCC) and organic (e.g.LCP) SOP implementations are capable of overcoming this limitation by integrating components as part of the module package that would have otherwise been acquired in discrete form. On-package components not only miniaturize the module, but also eliminate or minimize the need for discrete components and thereby reduce the assembly time and cost as well. In this talk, there will be demonstrations of the design and optimization of fundamental components, such as embedded inductors, packaging-adaptive antennas (multilayer coupled patches, SHS and tri-band Topologies, conformal antenna arrays) and MEMS switches / reconfigurable circuits as well as minimization of the crosstalk between neighboring transmission lines that are commonly used for the feeding of neighboring MMIC's. Fully integrated 3D modules for wideband/multiband convergent applications will be also presented. The simulations have been performed using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) and the multiresolution time-domain (MRTD) schemes that have been modified in a way to allow for the development of composite cells that enable the intracell modeling of multiple PEC and dielectric interfaces. This approach has demonstrated a very high efficiency in the calculation of the scattering parameters, the Q-factor, as well as in the estimation of the radiation pattern, of the packaging effects and of the parasitic crosstalk between neighboring geometries. In addition, their inherent capability of global electromagnetic field calculation allows for the identification of hot