A compact 2-18GHz ultra-wideband frequency-conversion T/R module based on a 3D heterogeneous integrated process

Abstract

In this letter, a compact 2-18GHz ultra-wideband frequency-conversion transmit/receive (T/R) module based on a three-dimensional heterogeneous integration (3DHI) process is designed and fabricated. An ultra-wideband impedance matching method is introduced to address the structural discontinuities within the 3D interconnections. Through silicon via (TSV) shielding and cavity designs are leveraged to reduce the impact of local oscillator (LO) leakage. The compact module consists of stacked four-layer silicon interposers and two-layer embedded chips is employed by a 3DHI process with wafer-to-wafer (W2W) bonding, the dimensions of which is only 10.1mm × 10.1mm × 1.0mm. The measured results show that the saturated output power reaches 19dBm at 2GHz and 16.9dBm at 18GHz, and the rejection of image frequencies exceeds 70dBc.