A Compact Package with Integrated Patch Antenna for Single-chip 60-ghz Radios

Abstract—This paper presents the development of a standard surface mountable ceramic ball grid array (CBGA) package with an integrated patch antenna in low temperature cofired ceramic (LTCC) technology for emerging single-chip 60-GHz radios. It addresses the challenges of low-loss wire bonding interconnections required between the chip and the antenna as well as the package to allow efficient utilization of available space for miniaturization. The compact package of size 12.5×8×1.265mm3 achieves good electrical performance. For instance, the package part exhibits insertion loss < 0.08 dB, return loss > 22 dB, and attenuation rate < 0.2 dB/cm below 5GHz; while the antenna part demonstrates 8-GHz impedance bandwidth and 8 ± 2 dBi peak realized gain at 60GHz. Simulated and measured results are compared. They agree reasonably well, indicating the feasibility of designing and manufacturing the integrated antenna package in LTCC for millimeterwave applications.