Glass-Core Substrates for RF Heterogeneous Integrated Packages
Citation
Ketterson, A., Chen, S., Pandey, R., Chiu, A., El Bouanani, L., Hitt, J., Yun, Y., Kim, Y. R., Anderson, K., & Ashby, K. (2023, October 2-5). Glass-Core Substrates for RF Heterogeneous Integrated Packages. 56th International Symposium on Microelectronics, San Diego, CA, USA.
Brief
Qorvo and partners are researching the viability of glass-core substrates with low-loss organic buildup layers for use in compact RF and mixed-signal microsystems.
Summary
The selection of an appropriate substrate technology is crucial for electrical heterogeneous integrated circuit packaging solutions, especially for RF and mixed-signal applications that require supporting both high-power RF signals and high-density, low-voltage digital signals. The current trend is to use substrates based on organic buildup dielectrics and copper interconnects. However, there is a trade-off between size reduction and the need for thicker dielectrics and larger cross-sectional areas for low-loss transmission lines.
This has led to a demand for dielectric materials with lower dielectric constants and dissipation factors. Achieving cost-effectiveness with larger panel and wafer sizes presents a challenge, particularly at lower unit volumes. In response to these challenges, Qorvo, under the Department of Defense-funded SHIP-RF program, is developing panel-sized glass-core substrates with fine-pitch interconnects on organic buildup dielectrics for compact RF and mixed-signal microsystems.