Since 2008, IHE is working on the idea of integrating a complete millimeter-wave transceiver frontend including antennas into a miniature-sized package [1]. The idea is based on the following three considerations:

• In the new millennium, silicon-based semiconductor technologies allow the realization of millimeter-wave circuits even at frequencies beyond 100 GHz
• At millimeter-wave frequencies, the wavelength is of order of a typical analog integrated circuit (IC).
• At millimeter-wave frequencies, the realization of interconnects becomes more and more difficult. Moreover, the performance of these interconnects increasingly deteriorates.  

Thus the integration of millimeter-wave transceivers into a miniature-sized package has only recently become possible and is deemed highly attractive by both research and industry. The first big research project in this topic was SUCCESS,in which a complete 122 GHz radar frontend was integrated into a quad flat no leads (QFN) package [2][3]. Recently, low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC)-based 122 GHz radar frontends have been successfully demonstrated, which is a new record the LTCC technology [4]. The millimeter-wave passive components in these frontends including aperture-coupled via-fence patch antenna arrays, Mushroom electromagnetic bandgap antennas and via-based stripline-to-grounded coplanar waveguide signal transitions [5] are implemented in the multilayered LTCC technology. Moreover, only low-cost standard assembly and packaging techniques have been used in building these frontends, thus establishing their potential for mass-market applications. We are also working on a 240 GHz wireless communication frontend with on-chip antennas under the aegis of a DFG project (Real 100G). This frontend employs a novel packaging concept, in which the semiconductor transceiver ICs are directly mounted onto a dielectric lens. Additionally, the on-chip antennas radiate backwards through the lens, thus solving the typical poor-efficiency problem of on-chip antennas. The packaging concept has been successfully demonstrated by means of the first commercial single chip radar at 122GHz, developed in collaboration with Silicon Radar GmbH [6].

Patent:

B. Göttel, M. Pauli, S. Beer, T. Blank, T. Zwick, Verfahren zur Gehäusung von Sub-Millimeterwellen-Halbleiterschaltungen sowie mit dem Verfahren herstellbares Halbleitermodul, issued as German patent DE 10 2012 025 433 B4, October 1, 2015.