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The guys from IMST are great, they explore LTCC up and down and contributed a lot to the multilayer way of thinking. There is a variety of papers available on the website and you can get them for free.
Yes, I really think it is too much to pay 150 (250) Euro for 56 pages of so called tutorial. Of course, I didn't browse trough it, but looking at the TOC I can tell that this doesn't seem to be tutorial at all. It is more like some comercial intro to the field of LTCC. Usually you can't really learn anything from such general and concentrated literature. Also, I have a feeling it is linked to IMST or their co-laborate LTCC process and data given there might be unique.
I have some experience in LTCC and I can give you a few hints. Don't know what your real work is all about, but usually it is already known which process you are going to use (which manufacturer will make your LTCC circuits). The owner of the process usually has design notes and guides with rulles, model description or even design kit for a program such as ADS, MWO or similar.
There were also some useful tutorials/workshops held on IMS in 2001, 2002 and 2003 so you can trace them to get some slides to give you a flavor how the others are doing the same.
well, I have some limited experience. You have to have very good characterisation for LTCC characteristics on those frequencies (Er, tanD) and reliable information what tolerances you should expect in manufacturing process. Some processes are not good enough for HF applications.
Design philosophy is a bit different for HF applications as well. Instead of embedding passives you can embed lines and take full advantage of multilayer substrates that has been dremt about some years ago.
this is what I got so far, should be more, have to search my CDs. Not sure that there is something about PA but you can find some general guidelines there.
LTCC at very high frequency:
1. Advantage it is multilayer lot of place to hide your DC lines, some Rf components can be designed in the multi layer, to save place in mmics, main advantage coeficient of expansion similar to GaAs, so you don't need covar, and you can use LTCC for package.
2. For Rf-microwave components you need datasheet for your frequency.
3.Q in LTCC is typically very low, because the typical layer are very thin, so beware of conductive metal losses. tolerances are not better than normal PCB boards, maybe worse. High precision is quite available on top layer(microstrip -using PCB standard etching procedures).
4.Thermal considerations in PA critical, use vias for heat pipes.
5.Design components using elements and topologies to lessen the impact of LTCC tolerance. Especially for filters. Top layer microstrip,inside layer stripline,etc, LETS YOU get much better rejection then microstrip
6.Use imagination to design in 3D layered space, a lot of flexibility.
7.Use IE3D, HFSS or CST to model crossings between layers.
More information,
For the Ka band you have two best system material. The FERRO A6 and DUPONT 943. Fabs prefare to use Dupont 951 becouse it is low cost and years in the market, but has more losses at the Ka band.
There is always a competition between Organic and Ceramic substrates. Now Rogers comes with a multilayer organic crystal material that is also hermeticaly seald. The so called PCB has about the same acurracy of the LTCC and sometimes one has to concider this option.
Sometimes you jump into the multilayer option becouse you have many DC and controll lines. In that case try using a simple multilayer PCB for the DC and controlles and use Al2O3 for microwave.
just to let you know, I start posting my collection of LTCC papers on IEEE-Study papers forum There is around 30Mb of papers from Transactions, Letters, IMS, EuMC, Imaps etc. Hope some of you will find it useful.
I am in process of designing the Lumped Element (Capacitor) based on LTCC, using its advantage to integrate the passive structure. It is basically a DC blocking capacitor with upper limit to be passed of 30GHz..........If any of the member had gr8 experience regarding this specific stuff then pls share on this forum, ofcourse that would be quite appreciable and beneficial (atleast 8O )for me.
• R.L. Brown, P.W. Polinski, “The Integration of Passive Components Into MCMs Using Advanced Low-Temperature Cofired Ceramics,” 1993 International Journal of Microcircuit and Electronic Packaging, v.16 n.4, pp.328-338.
• A Single-package integration of RF blocks for a 5 GHz WLAN application,. Advanced Packaging,IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Technology, Part B: Vol. 24 Issue: 3, Page(s): 384-391, Aug. 2001
• William Blood, Feng Ling, Telesphor Kamgaing, Tomas Myers, and Michael Petras, "Simulation, Modeling, and Testing Embedded RF Capacitors in Low Temperature Cofired Ceramic," Electronic Components and Technology Conference, 2001, pp. 852-857
• Daniel I. Amey and Joshep P. Curilla, "Microwave Properties of Ceramic Materials," Electronic Components and Technology Conference, 1991, pp. 267-272
• W. Wersing, S. Gohlke, R. Matz, W. Eurskens, and V. Wannenmacher,” Integrated passive components using low temperature co-fired ceramics,” in Int. Microelectron. Symp., 1998, pp. 193–199.
• Ritter, A. Templeton, and B. Smith, “Multilayer cofired RC’s for line termination,” in Int. Microelectron. Symp., 1998, pp. 447–452
• J. Muller and H. Thust. “3D-intergration of passive RF-components in LTCC,” in Pan Pacific Microelectron. Symp. Dig., 1997, pp. 211–216.
These are not in the one kept by flyhigh (anyways thanks for ur cooperation). If someone has an access to these papers. Kindly upload it.
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