A shielded and robust LTCC BGA-interconnect for Ka-band satellite flight hardware

Abstract

The complexity of today's satellite systems is ever-growing and system weight and size of the subcomponents are becoming even more critical as the number of channels increases. A possible solution for achieving small systems, while maintaining reliability, is the use of the LTCC process. The so-called Keramis technology is a modular concept, where a number of small, hermetically sealed LTCC modules are connected on a carrier substrate. For these systems, the interconnect technology that connects the different LTCCs is of high importance. This paper presents a novel BGA interconnect for high frequency operation up to 40 GHz.