Adel A. Elsherbini

Ultra-thin dual polarized millimeter-wave phased array system-in-package with embedded transceiver chip

A 16-element dual polarized phased array transmit/receive (Tx/Rx) System-in-Package (SiP) for 60 GHz applications is presented. Embedded die technology is used to achieve total module thickness of only 600 μm, improved first level interconnect density and better electrical performance. The dual polarized antenna architecture enables several configurations of the transmitter and receiver orientation without major impact on the signal to noise ratio (SNR). The proposed system was fabricated on a low loss multilayer organic package substrate, assembled and fully characterized. Single element and phased array performance was evaluated showing very good agreement with the simulation over the 60 GHz ISM band. Active measurements showing good steering and dual polarization characteristics were also performed.

Low-profile fully integrated 60 GHz 18 element phased array on multilayer liquid crystal polymer flip chip package

We present an ultra-thin, low cost, fully integrated 60GHz phased array antenna module supporting 18 TX/RX antenna elements for 60 GHz WiGig applications. The RFIC is assembled on a 15 mm × 12 mm liquid crystal polymer (LCP) package containing the antenna elements. All millimeter-wave signal routing was done on the same layer as the die pads to minimize the number of package substrate layers (4 total metal layers) and achieve very small total package thickness of 0.41 mm. The measurement results for the package showed good agreement with the simulation. The measured peak directivity of the steerable array was 17.4 dBi and routing losses were 0.5 - 1dB.

Circuit modeling of nonlinear lossy frequency dependent thin-film magnetic inductors

Thin-film magnetic inductors are useful for integrated power delivery solutions for microprocessors and mobile devices. In many of these applications, the inductor dimensions have to be optimized simultaneously with the other circuit components, and thus accurate circuit models are required. Hence, we present an accurate physics-based circuit model that can capture the frequency dependency, losses, and the nonlinear behavior of thin-film magnetic inductors both for the uncoupled and coupled configurations. The model is based on the magnetic circuit description of the inductors with additional elements to model the frequency dependency within the magnetic material. The model is verified using vector network analyzer measurements of direct current biased inductors.

Mitigating Crosstalk in Unterminated Channels

Based on the recognition that near-end crosstalk propagating to the far end is the primary source of crosstalk noise in short unterminated channels, an approach to improve the signal integrity on such channels significantly is described and demonstrated. The basic physics of crosstalk reduction by matrix matching is described and illustrated numerically. Then, large potential gains for three on-package interconnect application examples are shown. A nominal strip-line configuration based on standard package design rules and including realistic modeling assumptions yields 50.4% reduced channel power at equal performance. The same design can be converted into microstrip without degrading the eye height and channel power. For a dense multichip package with design of experiment simulation, the worst-case eye width is improved by 114%.

Crosstalk reduction by matrix matching

Based on the recognition that propagating near-end crosstalk is the primary source of crosstalk noise in short unterminated channels we describe and demonstrate an approach to improve the signal integrity on such channels significantly. The basic physics and Norton formulation of crosstalk reduction by matrix matching are described. We then show large potential gains for two on-package interconnect application examples. A nominal strip line configuration based on standard package design rules and including realistic modeling assumptions yields 50.4% reduced channel power at iso-performance. The same design can be converted to microstrip without degrading eye height and channel power.