Organic wafer-scale packaging for X-band SiGe low noise amplifier

Abstract

This paper presents for the first time an organic Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) based System-on-Package module for an X-band SiGe low noise amplifier. The LNA is laminated with 2 mil LCP and via interconnects are fabricated. Measurements are made before and after packaging to ensure accurate comparison of amplifier performance. Before packaging, the LNA yielded 10.3 dB of gain, a minimum noise figure of 1.8 dB and a 50 Ω noise figure of 1.9dB. After packaging, there was a 0.1 dB of loss in gain output, a 0.1 dB increase in minimum noise figure and a 0.6 dB increase in 50 Ω noise figure. It is shown that thin layers of LCP can be successfully used in a wafer level packaging scheme for hybrid integration of SiGe RF electronics and organic packaging layers.