Trends and Challenges in Coplanar Millimeter-Wave Integrated Circuit Design

Abstract

Despite the advantages of coplanar waveguide technology for high performance and low cost MMIC applications, its possibilities are still not thoroughly exploited for commercial applications. This paper presents an overview of trends and latest achievements in millimeter-wave coplanar integrated circuit design, such as modeling aspects, mounting techniques, and system applications. Coplanar circuit technology has shown its potential to be competitive with microstrip by recent solutions of the previously hindering technical and technological problems, and the realization of circuits for high performance millimeter-wave applications.

A chip-scale packaged amplifier MMIC using broadband hot-via transitions

“…Wires are indeed replaced by bumps in combination with coplanar flip-chip or hot-via techniques. Whereas the flipchip approach in combination with coplanar MMICs provides good RF and thermal properties, even up-and above the millimeter wave range [2], most MMICs are still designed with the conventional microstrip technique.…”