Design of a Ka-band receiver front end using Si-based system in package

Abstract

This letter presents a Ka-band receiver front end in the form of system in package using silicon substrate. The front end adopts a dual-channel superheterodyne structure, two GaAs downconverter chips and a power divider chip are integrated on the silicon substrate with an embedded substrate integrated waveguide bandpass filter. Wire-bonding is used for connections and unique impedance matching structure is designed and embedded into the GSG transmission line to compensate for additional insertion loss. The test results show a conversion gain of -13.4 dB without the gain of low noise amplifier. The work in this letter is one of few presentation of a RF system in the form of stacked silicon system in package, revealing the feasibility of stacked silicon in complex RF system implement.