A Compact -Band 3-D MMIC Single-Chip Down-Converter Using Photosensitive

A high-density monolithic-microwave integrated- circuit (MMIC) -band down-converter, which employs the mas- terslice three-dimensional (3-D) MMIC technology and photo- sensitive benzocyclobutene (BCB) dielectric film, is presented in this paper. The 3-D MMIC process, which uses photosensitive BCB dielectric film, reduces the turn-around time by 66% com- pared to the polyimide-based fabrication process. The BCB-based fabrication process offers flexible metal configurations and high yields. The down-converter is structured on an 8 2 master array in a 1.84 mm 0.87 mm chip. A newly developed down- converter MMIC with a heterostructure MESFET with of 130 GHz consists of a two-stage radio-frequency amplifier and an image rejection mixer with an intermodulation frequency amplifier. This MMIC demonstrates a gain of 19.3 dB and an image rejection ratio of above 18 dB in the frequency range of 56.5-59.5 GHz; its associated gain density is five times higher than that of conventional MMIC's. This paper first clarifies the design criteria for 3-D MMIC packaging using the flip-chip bonding technique. The BCB-based 3-D MMIC technology with the flip- chip bonding will realize much cheaper millimeter-wave wireless equipment.