Two- and Three-dimensional High Performance, Patterned Overlay Multi-chip Module Technology

A two- and three-dimensional multi-chip module technology was developed in response to the continuum in demand for increased performance in electronic systems, as well as the desire to reduce the size, weight, and power of space systems. Though developed to satisfy the needs of military programs, such as the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization, the technology, referred to as High Density Interconnect, can also be advantageously exploited for a wide variety of commercial applications, ranging from computer workstations to instrumentation and microwave telecommunications. The robustness of the technology, as well as its high performance, make this generality in application possible. More encouraging is the possibility of this technology for achieving low cost through high volume usage

Implementation of packaged integrated antenna with embedded front end for Bluetooth applications

The design, integration and realization of system in enhanced package approach towards fully functional system level integration by using a compact Bluetooth USB dongle as the demonstrator is presented here. The integration was done on FR4 substrates, which is totally compatible with today’s printed circuit board manufacturing capability. A commercially available Bluetooth integrated chip was chosen as the chipset of our demonstrator, and a package integrated antenna together with an embedded front end completes the system in package integration. The front end developed here is based on an embedded meander line combline filter and an embedded transformer balun. The filter has a 35% area reduction when compared with the classical combline filter and similar performance. The balun has the coils distributed on three layers that minimized the board area needed it and optimizes the performances. The proposed packaged integrated antenna approach is successfully demonstrated here and the new module shows excellent performance when compared with a commercial solution, surpassing the normal Bluetooth class II dongle range which is up to 10 m and increasing the module range up to 120 m without an extra power amplifier

Ka-Band MMIC Subarray Technology Program (Ka-Mist)

Ka-band monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) arrays have been considered as having high potential for increasing the capability of space, aircraft, and land mobile communication systems in terms of scan performance, data rate, link margin, and flexibility while offering a significant reduction in size, weight, and power consumption. Insertion of MMIC technology into antenna systems, particularly at millimeter wave frequencies using low power and low noise amplifiers in closed proximity to the radiating elements, offers a significant improvement in the array transmit efficiency, receive system noise figure, and overall array reliability. Application of active array technology also leads to the use of advanced beamforming techniques that can improve beam agility, diversity, and adaptivity to complex signal environments. The objective of this program was to demonstrate the technical feasibility of the 'tile' array packaging architecture at EHF via the insertion of 1990 MMIC technology into a functional tile array or subarray module. The means test of this objective was to demonstrate and deliver to NASA a minimum of two 4 x 4 (16 radiating element) subarray modules operating in a transmit mode at 29.6 GHz. Available (1990) MMIC technology was chosen to focus the program effort on the novel interconnect schemes and packaging requirements rather than focusing on MMIC development. Major technical achievements of this program include the successful integration of two 4 x 4 subarray modules into a single antenna array. This 32 element array demonstrates a transmit EIRP of over 300 watts yielding an effective directive power gain in excess of 55 dB at 29.63 GHz. The array has been actively used as the transmit link in airborne/terrestrial mobile communication experiments accomplished via the ACTS satellite launched in August 1993

Extending systems-on-chip to the third dimension : performance, cost and technological tradeoffs.

Because of the today's market demand for high-performance, high-density portable hand-held applications, electronic system design technology has shifted the focus from 2-D planar SoC single-chip solutions to different alternative options as tiled silicon and single-level embedded modules as well as 3-D integration. Among the various choices, finding an optimal solution for system implementation dealt usually with cost, performance and other technological trade-off analysis at the system conceptual level. It has been identified that the decisions made within the first 20% of the total design cycle time will ultimately result up to 80% of the final product cost. In this paper, we discuss appropriate and realistic metric for performance and cost trade-off analysis both at system conceptual level (up-front in the design phase) and at implementation phase for verification in the three-dimensional integration. In order to validate the methodology, two ubiquitous electronic systems are analyzed under various implementation schemes and discuss the pros and cons of each of them

Conformal Magnetic Composite RFID for Wearable RF and Bio-Monitoring Applications

©2008 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or distribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE. This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.10.1109/TMTT.2008.2006810This paper introduces for the first time a novel flexible magnetic composite material for RF identification (RFID) and wearable RF antennas. First, one conformal RFID tag working at 480 MHz is designed and fabricated as a benchmarking prototype and the miniaturization concept is verified. Then, the impact of the material is thoroughly investigated using a hybrid method involving electromagnetic and statistical tools. Two separate statistical experiments are performed, one for the analysis of the impact of the relative permittivity and permeability of the proposed material and the other for the evaluation of the impact of the dielectric and magnetic loss on the antenna performance. Finally, the effect of the bending of the antenna is investigated, both on the S-parameters and on the radiation pattern. The successful implementation of the flexible magnetic composite material enables the significant miniaturization of RF passives and antennas in UHF frequency bands, especially when conformal modules that can be easily fine-tuned are required in critical biomedical and pharmaceutical applications

Enhancing pharmaceutical packaging through a technology ecosystem to facilitate the reuse of medicines and reduce medicinal waste

The idea of reusing dispensed medicines is appealing to the general public provided its benefits are illustrated, its risks minimized, and the logistics resolved. For example, medicine reuse could help reduce medicinal waste, protect the environment and improve public health. However, the associated technologies and legislation facilitating medicine reuse are generally not available. The availability of suitable technologies could arguably help shape stakeholders’ beliefs and in turn, uptake of a future medicine reuse scheme by tackling the risks and facilitating the practicalities. A literature survey is undertaken to lay down the groundwork for implementing technologies on and around pharmaceutical packaging in order to meet stakeholders’ previously expressed misgivings about medicine reuse (’stakeholder requirements’), and propose a novel ecosystem for, in effect, reusing returned medicines. Methods: A structured literature search examining the application of existing technologies on pharmaceutical packaging to enable medicine reuse was conducted and presented as a narrative review. Results: Reviewed technologies are classified according to different stakeholders’ requirements, and a novel ecosystem from a technology perspective is suggested as a solution to reusing medicines. Conclusion: Active sensing technologies applying to pharmaceutical packaging using printed electronics enlist medicines to be part of the Internet of Things network. Validating the quality and safety of returned medicines through this network seems to be the most effective way for reusing medicines and the correct application of technologies may be the key enabler

SIM-DSP: A DSP-Enhanced CAD Platform for Signal Integrity Macromodeling and Simulation

Macromodeling-Simulation process for signal integrity verifications has become necessary for the high speed circuit system design. This paper aims to introduce a “VLSI Signal Integrity Macromodeling and Simulation via Digital Signal Processing Techniques” framework (known as SIM-DSP framework), which applies digital signal processing techniques to facilitate the SI verification process in the pre-layout design phase. Core identification modules and peripheral (pre-/post-)processing modules have been developed and assembled to form a verification flow. In particular, a single-step discrete cosine transform truncation (DCTT) module has been developed for modeling-simulation process. In DCTT, the response modeling problem is classified as a signal compression problem, wherein the system response can be represented by a truncated set of non-pole based DCT bases, and error can be analyzed through Parseval’s theorem. Practical examples are given to show the applicability of our proposed framework

Thermosonic flip chip interconnection using electroplated copper column arrays

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Design and implementation of an electro-optical backplane with pluggable in-plane connectors

The design, implementation and characterisation of an electro-optical backplane and an active pluggable in-plane optical connector technology is presented. The connection architecture adopted allows line cards to be mated to and unmated from a passive electro-optical backplane with embedded polymeric waveguides. The active connectors incorporate a photonics interface operating at 850 nm and a mechanism to passively align the interface to the optical waveguides embedded in the backplane. A demonstration platform has been constructed to assess the viability of embedded electro-optical backplane technology in dense data storage systems. The demonstration platform includes four switch cards, which connect both optically and electronically to the electro-optical backplane in a chassis. These switch cards are controlled by a single board computer across a Compact PCI bus on the backplane. The electrooptical backplane is comprised of copper layers for power and low speed bus communication and one polymeric optical layer, wherein waveguides have been patterned by a direct laser writing scheme. The optical waveguide design includes densely arrayed multimode waveguides with a centre to centre pitch of 250μm between adjacent channels, multiple cascaded waveguide bends, non-orthogonal crossovers and in-plane connector interfaces. In addition, a novel passive alignment method has been employed to simplify high precision assembly of the optical receptacles on the backplane. The in-plane connector interface is based on a two lens free space coupling solution, which reduces susceptibility to contamination. Successful transfer of 10.3 Gb/s data along multiple waveguides in the electro-optical backplane has been demonstrated and characterised