Three-Dimensional SIP Design of the Four-Channel RF Transceiver Based on Silicon and ALN for X-Band Radar Applications

This article proposes a miniature 3-D system in package (SIP) design of the four-channel RF transceiver. The key advancement is the demonstration of 3-D stacking of silicon carriers and aluminum nitride (ALN) high temperature co-fired ceramic (HTCC) carriers based on 70μ m Au micro-bumps. The influences of the carrier on the performance of gallium arsenide (GaAs) monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) are analyzed in detail. A new silicon carrier with hollow annular through silicon via (TSV) and non-metalized cavity (NMC) is proposed, which is characterized by less impact on MMIC performance, more compact stacking size, and lower fabrication cost. The GaAs MMICs, silicon, and ALN carriers are heterogeneously integrated and stacked vertically to form a 3-D SIP. The proposed hermetic 3-D SIP is highly integrated with a volume of 12.7×13.9×3.6 mm with 7×8 ball grid array (BGA) input and output ports, and capable of working with four different types of passbands for anti-jamming. Measured results indicate that the SIP has the advantages of high reliability, high performance, and mass manufacture.