NOVEL TECHNIQUES FOR MILLIMETER-WAVE PACKAGES

A new millimeter-wave package architecture with supporting electrical, mechanical and material science experiment and analysis is presented, This package is well suited for discrete devices, monolithic microwav e integrated circuits (MMIC's) and multichip module (MCM) applications . It has low-loss wideband RF transitions which are necessary to overc ome manufacturing tolerances leading to lower per unit cost, Potential applications of this new packaging architecture which go beyond the s tandard requirements of device protection include integration of anten nas, compatibility to photonic networks and direct transitions to wave guide systems. Techniques for electromagnetic analysis, thermal contro l and hermetic sealing mere explored. Three dimensional electromagneti c analysis was performed using a finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) algorithm and experimentally verified for millimeter-wave package inpu t and output transitions. New multi-material system concepts (AIN, Cu, and diamond thin films) which allow excellent surface finishes to be achieved with enhanced thermal management have been investigated, A ne w approach utilizing block copolymer coatings was employed to hermetic ally seal packages which met MIL STD-883.