Hughes Aircraft Company

Delco Electronics Corporation

Mario Siracusa

Cheng P Wen

William David Higdon

Gregory S Mendolia

Joseph J Maieron

Yu-Wen Y Chang

John J Wooldridge

Jon J Gulick

Hiromu John Kuno

A microwave radar transceiver assembly (30) includes a monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) chip (58) having a coplanar waveguide transmssion lines (100, 102, 104) formed on the same surface (58a) as the electronic elements thereof. Coplanar waveguide transmission lines (68, 70, 72) are also formed on a surface (62a) of a substrate (62). The transceiver chip (58), in addition to other chips (56, 60), are mounted on the substrate (62) in a flip-chip arrangement, with the respective surfaces (58a, 62a) on which the transmission lines (100, 102, 104; 68, 70, 72) are formed facing each other. Electrically conductive bumps (106, 108, 110) are formed on portions of the transmission lines (100, 102, 104) of the chips (56, 58, 60) which are to be interconneced with the transmission lines (68, 70, 72) of the substrate (62), and solder (114) is formed on the portions of the transmission line (68, 70, 72) of the substrate (62) which are to be interconnected with the transmission lines (100, 102, 104) of the chips (56, 68, 60). The bumps (106, 108, 110) provide spacing between the mating surfaces (58a, 62a) of the substrate (62) and chips (56, 68, 60), and isolation between electronic elements on the chips (56, 58, 60).

Single substrate microwave radar transceiver including flip-chip

A coplanar waveguide based microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) oscillator chip (14) having an active oscillator element (16) and a resonant capacitor (18) formed thereon is flip-chip mounted on a dielectric substrate (12). A resonant inductor (22) is formed on the substrate (12) and interconnected with the resonant capacitor (18) to form a high Q-factor resonant circuit for the oscillator (10). The resonant inductor (22) includes a shorted coplanar waveguide section (24) consisting of first and second ground strips (24b,24c), and a conductor strip (24a) extending between the first and second ground strips (24b,24c) in parallel relation thereto and being separated therefrom by first and second spaces (26a,26b) respectively. A shorting strip (24d) electrically interconnects adjacent ends of the conductor strip (24a) and first and second ground strips (24b,24c) respectively. A dielectric film (34) may be formed over at least adjacent portions of the conductor strip (24 a) and first and second ground strips (24b,24c). The resonant inductor (22) is adjusted to provide a predetermined resonant frequency for the oscillator (10) by using a laser (40) to remove part of the dielectric film (34) in the first and second spaces (26a,26b) for fine adjustment, and/or to remove part of the shorting strip (24d) at the ends of the first and second spaces (26a,26b) for coarse adjustment.

Flip-chip MMIC oscillator assembly with off-chip coplanar waveguide

An active millimeter wave integrated circuit including a thin non-metallic waveguiding layer mounted on an image plane and having an opening therein which exposes a given area of the image plane. An active solid state device, such as a millimeter wave diode, is mounted on the exposed area of the image plane, and millimeter wave energy is coupled to and from the device into the waveguiding layer by way of both a metallic ribbon (or wire) bonded to the active device and a connecting metallization pattern atop the waveguiding layer. This metallization pattern may assume various geometries corresponding to functional components such as low-pass filters, resonators, stepped or tapered metallized transitions, and the like, and also provides the desired impedance matching and efficient energy coupling between the active device and the waveguiding layer. A dc operating bias can be applied to the device by connecting one power supply terminal to the metallization pattern and one power supply terminal to the ground or image plane. The image plane also serves as an excellent solid mechanical support and heat sink for the integrated circuit.

Active millimeter-wave integrated circuit

Growing community of inventors

Fountain Valley, CA, United States of America

Mario Siracusa