3856 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 60, NO.
12, DECEMBER 2012
An Ultra-Thin, High-Power, and Multilayer Organic
Antenna Array With T/R Functionality in the -Band
Carlos A. Donado Morcillo, Member, IEEE, Chad E. Patterson, Member, IEEE, Benjamin Lacroix,
Christopher Coen, Student Member, IEEE, Chung H. J. Poh, Member, IEEE,
John D. Cressler, Fellow, IEEE, and John Papapolymerou, Fellow, IEEE
AbstractThe transmitreceive (T/R) operation of an ultra-thin
organic antenna array is presented at a center frequency of
9.5 GHz. High transmit power is achieved while maintaining an
ultra-low profile in a novel system-on-a-package scheme whereby
32 silicongermanium (SiGe), transmit/receive integrated-cir-
cuit (TRIC) modules have been flip-chip bonded to the array
board. Each SiGe TRIC drives a pair of slot-coupled microstrip
patch antennas that form an 8 8 rectangular array, which
is all packaged in an organic substrate stack of liquid crystal
polymer and RT/Duroid 5880LZ. The organic package occupies
an area of 30.5 cm 25.4 cm and has a total thickness of only
1.80 mm. The small-signal characterization of the array showed
a dB, and a measured receive gain of 20.1 dB
with a variation of 0.7 dB over a 1-GHz bandwidth (BW). Finally,
far-field large-signal experiments showed a measured effective
isotropically radiated power of 47.1 dBm with a variation of
2.36 dB over the same BW, and without the aid of additional
thermal management components.
Index TermsMicrostrip antenna, organic materials, planar ar-
rays, radar antennas, silicon germanium.
I. INTRODUCTION
R ECENT developments in antenna arrays [1][8] have
demonstrated the use of organic substrates as a suit-
able solution for system-on-a-package (SoP) wireless front
ends. Features such as low cost, light weight, and flexibility
make organic substrates an attractive option for creating slim
microwave systems that can be conformed to the skin of un-
manned ground or aerial vehicles.
In addition to their flexibility, organic substrates, such
as Rogers ULTRALAM 3850 liquid crystal polymer (LCP)
(with , and ) [9], can provide a
near-hermetic package that is thermally matched to copper
and that is suitable for embedding RF integrated circuits (ICs),
as demonstrated in [10] and [11]. Moreover, the broadband
low-loss characteristics [12] and the large-panel lamination of
LCP, along with other organic materials such as RT/Duroid
5880LZ (alternatively referred to in this paper as the Duroid
Manuscript received March 29, 2012; revised August 18, 2012; accepted Au-
gust 22, 2012. Date of publication October 09, 2012; date of current version
December 13, 2012. This work was supported by the National Aeuronatics and
Space Administration (NASA) under Grant NNX08AN22G.
The authors are with the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0250 USA (e-mail:
cdonado@gatech.edu).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMTT.2012.2218119
0018-9480/$31.00 2012 IEEE
substrate, with , and ) [9], have
allowed the implementation of multichip antenna arrays on a
single board [1], [13].
With regard to the maximization of the effective isotropically
radiated power (EIRP), current organic SoP efforts are focused
on: 1) developing active-circuit technologies with a high output
power that 2) can be packaged as close as possible to the radi-
ating elements of the array. Here, we define EIRP as the power
radiated by the array system in the maximum gain direction of
the main beam
dBm (1)
where is the input power at the RF feed of the transmit-
antenna system, is the antenna directivity, and is the
efficiency of the antenna beam-former network (BFN).
In spite of their high-performance characteristics, organic
substrates face major packaging challenges when the target
of an organic array is to maximize EIRP. From an RF IC
perspective, high-power amplifiers (HPAs) generally operate
at high temperatures and require proper thermal management.
Depending on the RF IC technology chosen, thermal manage-
ment will, in most cases, consist of a thick and bulky metallic
heat sink or ventilation system, which inevitably imposes
constraints on the package real estate, and hence, on the level of
integration of the array. From a substrate perspective, organic
materials are poor thermal conductors, which limits the amount
of heat dissipated by the substrate. Altogether, these packaging
challenges must be resolved to implement high-power RF front
ends that can take advantage of the lightweight and flexibility
of organic substrates.
In this context, several SoP approaches are found in the
available literature to implement transmit functionality in
organic antenna arrays. For instance, a membrane phased array
is demonstrated at 1.26 GHz [2], where eight galliumarsenide
(GaAs) ICs are mounted on a Pyralux AP substrate with a
50- m thickness. Another approach is undertaken in [3] where
high-power unit cells are tiled to form an array at 3.3 GHz using
galliumnitride (GaN) ICs packaged on the organic substrate
Rogers 4350B. While a high EIRP (44 dBm) per unit cell
is demonstrated in this study, no multicell array operation is
shown, and the thick package has a high profile because of the
required thermal-management components.
System-on-a-chip (SoC) active arrays have also been suc-
cessfully demonstrated [4], [14] using silicongermanium
(SiGe) chips as a low-cost alternative to conventional active IC
technologies. The array in [4] has a high EIRP of 40 dBm in a
DONADO MORCILLO et al.: ULTRA-THIN, HIGH-POWER, AND MULTILAYER ORGANIC ANTENNA ARRAY WITH T/R FUNCTIONALITY IN
Fig. 1. Simplified schematic diagram of the proposed antenna array.
package that is compact because of the short wavelength of the
58.3264.8-GHz band. The SiGe active circuitry is integrated
on a BGA package that hosts 16 radiating elements and has a
footprint size of 2.8 cm 2.8 cm.
This study focuses on the development of a lightweight
antenna array for snow and ice survey applications [15], which
demand a high output power to increase the range of the
radar measurements. The array (simplified schematic shown
in Fig. 1) was designed at a center frequency of 9.5 GHz with
a bandwidth (BW) greater than 1.0 GHz, and implemented
on a stack of organic substrates LCP and RT/Duroid 5880LZ.
Bulk-size reduction is achieved by distributing the RF power
over a thin and wide-area package with low power-consumption
SiGe amplifiers that reduce the need for thermal management.
In addition, a high EIRP of 47.1 dBm is achieved by flip-chip
bonding the SiGe transmit/receive integrated circuits (TRICs)
in close proximity to the radiating elements. To the best of
the authors knowledge, this study reports the highest EIRP
using the thinnest organic package in the -band (Section IV),
with the largest number of flip-chip bonded SiGe TRICs in an
organic package.
This paper is organized as follows. Section II will introduce
the reader to the design and modeling of the antenna board,
including the BFN design and the SiGe TRIC technology.
Section III presents the organic antenna board fabrication
along with the flip-chip bonding process of the SiGe TRICs.
Section IV covers the small- and large-signal characterization
of the active antenna board, concluding with a benchmark
comparison to similar active arrays.
II. ARRAY DESIGN
In contrast to previous generations of this array technology
[1], [13], [16], [17], significant packaging innovations on the
BFN side have allowed a higher level of integration and an
ultra-low profile in the proposed array. In this regard, one key
achievement has been the successful deployment of a multilayer
stripline BFN over a large antenna panel, following the lamina-
tion scheme introduced in small scale by the authors in [18].
Since a degradation in the inter-layer alignment accuracy is ex-
pected for larger panel sizes (especially for organic substrates
-BAND 3857
such as LCP), the design of a BFN scheme with a performance
that is immune to fabrication misalignments is crucial to the op-
eration of the array.
A multilayer fabrication was necessary in this study because
the RF signal needed to be confined into the substrate stack so
that the performance of the system would not be affected at
crossing points with the digital/dc lines, which run mostly across
the top metallization layer of this stack. By allowing the multi-
layer overlap of RF and digital/dc signals on the same package,
the total number of external connectors in this board is reduced
to only two: one SMA connector for the RF feed and one dig-
ital/dc 9-pin connector, which contains all the necessary lines to
operate the 32 SiGe TRICs.
We can summarize the general operation of the array by fol-
lowing the schematic in Fig. 1. The RF feed section of the array
includes an end-fire SMA connector that is directly connected
to a multilayer coplanar waveguide (CPW)-to-stripline transi-
tion, which feeds the stripline section of the BFN. The design
and characterization of this multilayer CPW-to-stripline transi-
tion have been thoroughly discussed in [18]. The stripline sec-
tion then branches out to 32 paths distributing the RF signal to
each SiGe TRIC, which allow the toggled transmit (Tx) and re-
ceive (Rx) operation. The interconnection to the SiGe TRICs is
achieved through single-layer stripline-to-CPW transitions. Fi-
nally, each SiGe TRIC is in turn coupled to a pair of microstrip
patch antennas via embedded microstrip lines and slot apertures
in the ground plane (Fig. 2).
A. Substrate Stack Details
The cross-section diagram in Fig. 2 shows the detailed
anatomy of the substrate stack and the conceptual distribution
of the RF components for one of the 32 active RF paths in the
array. This substrate stack architecture was briefly introduced
by the authors in [18], and is described in detail below within
the context of this application. Following Fig. 2, the stack has
a total thickness of 1.80 mm (including the height of the SiGe
TRICs) and contains the following three major regions.
Digital/dc region, which is implemented on an LCP core
laminate (LCP Core 1) with top (M1) and bottom (M2)
copper metallization. M1 contains the TRICs digital/dc
lines, and the section of the RF feed that connects the BFN
to the input SMA connector. M2 contains the top ground-
plane pattern of the stripline BFN.
BFN region, which is implemented using two LCP core
laminates (LCP Core 2 and LCP Core 3), bonded altogether
and to the digital/dc region through LCP bond-ply lami-
nates. The LCP Core 3 has a copper metallization on its top
(M3) and bottom (M4) faces. M3 contains all the stripline
and embedded microstrip components of the BFN, along
with the pads on which the SiGe TRICs are mounted. M4 is
the bottom ground plane of the RF lines of the array BFN,
and has the slot apertures that couple the embedded mi-
crostrip lines to the microstrip patch antennas. M4 is also
the ground plane of the microstrip patch antennas on the
Duroid substrate.
Antenna region, which is implemented on an RT/Duroid
5880LZ core laminate that is bonded to the bottom ground
plane of the BFN region with a Taconic fastRise27 prepreg
3858 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 60, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2012
Fig. 2. Cross-section view of the array substrate stack showing the conceptual distribution of components for a single RF path from the RF feed to the patch
antennas (the thickness of the metallization and substrate layers are shown in parentheses). Excluding the RF feed, 32 of these paths form the 8 8 array.
Fig. 3. Multilayer top view of the stripline 3-dB splitter.
laminate ( , and ) [19]. The
64 microstrip patch antennas are patterned on the copper
metallization layer M5, which is at the bottom face of the
Duroid substrate.
B. Stripline BFN
As shown in Fig. 1, the majority of the BFN components of
the proposed array are implemented using stripline transmission
lines. Via fences are deployed along the stripline network to pre-
vent the excitation of higher order modes and the coupling of
electromagnetic radiation onto digital/dc lines. The via fences
were designed according to the geometries introduced by the
authors in [18], which follow the guidelines presented in [20]
and [21]. Extending the results from [18], here we introduce the
design and simulated performance of key elements in the BFN,
namely, the 3-dB power splitter, the eight-way power splitter,
and the single-layer stripline-to-CPW transitions for TRIC in-
terconnection.
The basic building block of the corporate BFN is the stripline
3-dB splitter (Fig. 3), which provides an impedance match to
50 looking into the BFN. Quarter-wavelength transformers
were used at the junction to present two parallel 100- imped-
ances from Ports 2 and 3, which reduce to a 50- load at Port 1.
The length and width of the adapters are obtained initially with
[22] and then optimized with [23].
The ability of the via fences to provide the proper confine-
ment of the RF signal in the BFN was also investigated. For
this purpose, an eight-way splitter (Fig. 4) was developed using
[24], based on the 3-dB splitter geometry proposed above. The
Fig. 4. Electromagnetic model of the stripline eight-way splitter and distribu-
tion of .
results of a quick time-domain simulation confirm that proper
RF-signal confinement is attained by showing that the squared
magnitude of the intensity of the electric field ( , plotted in
Fig. 4) reaches a level of 90 dB at the fence edges with re-
spect to the maximum , which occurs along the stripline
signal conductor as expected. Fig. 5 shows that an match
lower than 20 dB is achieved across the band of interest. In-
cluding conductor and dielectric losses, the total insertion loss
of a single branch is found from simulation at 4.52 dB, which
along with the 9.03 dB from the power splits add up to the sim-
ulated value of dB (with ).
Finally, to provide interconnectivity to the SiGe TRICs,
a stripline-to-CPW transition was developed. The proposed
multilayer packaging scheme requires that each SiGe TRIC is
housed in a recessed cavity that goes through LCP Core 1 and
LCP Core 2, to access the RF signal conductor in M3. Hence, a
3-D electromagnetic model was developed in [23] and is shown
in Fig. 6.
The only criteria in the design of this final transition was to
provide a CPW section that is compatible with the pitch of the
pins of the SiGe TRIC (250 m) and that can provide ground
interconnectivity for the TRIC. The designed 50- CPW line
has a signal width of 210 m and a gap width of 217 m. Ad-
ditionally, a short taper with a length of 100 m is provided to
compensate for the width change in the signal conductor at the
DONADO MORCILLO et al.: ULTRA-THIN, HIGH-POWER, AND MULTILAYER ORGANIC ANTENNA ARRAY WITH T/R FUNCTIONALITY IN
Fig. 5. Simulated -parameters of the stripline eight-way splitter.
Fig. 6. Electromagnetic model of the stripline-to-CPW transition (Duroid sub-
strate not shown).
Fig. 7. Simulated -parameters of the stripline-to-CPW transition.
interconnection with the stripline. The simulated -parameter
response is shown in Fig. 7.
C. SiGe TRIC Technology and Packaged Performance
In comparison to the case presented by the authors in [1],
where the T/R module consisted of three separate chips (plus re-
quired dc lumped-element components), the present study intro-
duces a single-chip custom-made T/R module to meet the array
real-estate requirements. The chip includes a three-bit phase
shifter (PS), a low-noise amplifier (LNA), a power amplifier
(PA), and two complementary metal oxide (CMOS) switches
for full T/R operation [see Fig. 8(a) and (b)]. Input and output
matching is also performed on die.
-BAND 3859
Fig. 8. TRIC: (a) block diagram and (b) circuit-layout photograph.
With a compact T/R module, the distance between the radi-
ating elements and the TRIC can be minimized and the EIRP
can be maximized. Although devices such as microelectrome-
chanical system (MEMS) switches or RF circulators would re-
duce the loss between the radiating elements and the TRIC, the
space and interconnection requirements would translate into an
impractical assembly process in the proposed scheme.
The TRICs were fabricated at an external facility using the
same SiGe technology as in [1]. Since the TRICs were designed
to be flip-chip bonded to the antenna board, controlled-collapse
chip connection solder bumps (C4 bumps) [25] were placed on
all input/output pads during fabrication. The chip occupies a
space of 2.13 mm 3.7 mm 0.25 mm, and the spherical C4
bumps have an approximated diameter of 100 m. The LNA,
digital control, and PS sections require a bias voltage of 3.5 V
and the PA section, 5.0 V. The maximum dc power consumption
of the TRIC is 400 mW in the Tx mode.
As on-die testing of the SiGe TRICs was not possible be-
cause of the C4 bumps, a number of chips were mounted on
individual packages that resembled packaging conditions of
the antenna. Fig. 9 shows an -parameter comparison between
the measured -parameters of a single flip-chip bonded TRIC
and the measured -parameters from four flip-chip bonded
TRICs with epoxy underfill. In these plots, the measurements
with epoxy underfill material are represented by the average
-parameters from the four chips, calculated according to [26].
The measurements included a thru-reflect-line calibration
[27] to de-embed the measurement-fixture transitions and
lines up to the plane of the C4 bumps. From the -parameter
3860 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 60, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2012
Fig. 9. Measured -parameters of singly packaged TRICs in Tx and Rx mode
with and without epoxy underfill.
measurements of the epoxy-under-filled samples at 9.5 GHz,
in Rx mode, we observed an average of 6.56 dB with a
chip-to-chip variation from 6.41 to 6.73 dB, and in Tx mode, an
average of 1.01 dB with a variation from 1.36 to 0.50 dB.
We also see in Fig. 9 the effect of the epoxy underfill on the
return loss of the TRICs, slightly improving the return loss on
the RF-feed side, and degrading it on the radiating-elements
side. More importantly, we observe that there is an increase in
insertion loss of about 0.5 dB in the Rx mode and 1.1 dB in the
Tx mode with respect to measurements of the TRIC without
epoxy underfill. This is due to the interaction of the epoxy
underfill with the on-die circuit of the TRIC.
Noise figure (NF), TRIC output power , and gain
compression measurements were also performed on five singly
packaged TRICs with epoxy underfill. The average Rx-mode
NF is shown in Fig. 10 over frequency. In the Tx mode, gain
compression and TRIC measurements are shown in
Fig. 11 per input-power level. We observe in the Rx mode an
average dB from 9.0 to 10.0 GHz with a chip-to-chip
variation from 4.97 to 5.87 dB. Finally, we see that in the Tx
Fig. 10. Average NF over frequency, extracted from measurements of five
singly packaged SiGe TRICs with epoxy underfill.
Fig. 11. Output power and gain linearity measurements of a singly packaged
TRIC with epoxy underfill in Tx mode.
mode, at 9.5 GHz, the average TRIC dBm, with a
variation from 9.67 to 11.5 dBm.
D. Microstrip Patch Antennas
Since the proposed active array has a large and intricate de-
sign, the total BFN simulation has been broken into individual
components up to this point, ensuring that the 50- match cri-
teria is met at the RF-feed side. Simulations have included 50-
terminations deployed at the end of each of the 32 branches, with
each termination corresponding to the matched SiGe TRICs.
Moving toward the antenna side, we proceed now to explain
the design steps to obtain the desired array behavior.
The separation between the radiating elements (microstrip
patch antennas) was determined using the procedure from [13]
to achieve a similar hypothetical phased-array performance.1
The radiating-element spacing is then determined from the
center of each patch antenna at 2.3 and 2.7 cm in the - and
-directions, respectively. For this 8 8 array, the theoretical
3-dB beamwidth is estimated at 9.2 7.5 .
The feed geometry and dimensions of the microstrip patch
antennas were optimized using [28], with the target of mini-
mizing the at the RF feed plane across the desired BW. As
done in [13], a baseline simulation was performed by replacing
1As the beam-steering capability of a similar package has been already char-
acterized for Tx and Rx modes in [1], this study focuses mainly on the power-
handling capabilities of SiGe circuitry in an organic array package.
DONADO MORCILLO et al.: ULTRA-THIN, HIGH-POWER, AND MULTILAYER ORGANIC ANTENNA ARRAY WITH T/R FUNCTIONALITY IN
Fig. 12. Multilayer top view of the feed layout for a pair of patch antennas.
the TRICs with 50- thru lines until an acceptable
tained. Optimized dimensions are shown in Fig. 12.
III. ARRAY FABRICATION PROCESS
Vertically integrated antenna arrays, in particular, arrays of
slot-coupled microstrip-patch antennas, are versatile structures
in the sense that distinct substrates can be used for the radi-
ating elements and for the BFN, which allows the optimization
of the antenna response while reducing the size of BFN com-
ponents. As introduced in [29] and successfully demonstrated
in [1], [16], and [17], the higher dielectric constant and thin
lamination of LCP allows the reduction of the size of RF trans-
mission lines and transitions on the BFN side, while the lower
dielectric constant and thick-lamination capacity of the Duroid
substrate permit to attain a higher antenna BW and a better ra-
diation efficiency [29].
Although in theory the two-substrate approach for vertically
integrated antennas may seem like an optimal solution, major
drawbacks were found during the practical implementation of
this concept using distinct organic substrates. With different
dielectric constants, the thermal-expansion coefficient mis-
match between the substrates will cause an undesired tangential
stress during heating and cooling cycles in post-lamination
processing, which results in severe board warping of thin sub-
strate stacks. The stress may weaken solder joints in flip-chip
bonded components if proper preemptive measures are not
implemented.
Besides thermal issues during fabrication, the substrate stack
must provide enough mechanical robustness to support the flip-
chip bonded components. In this context, flip-chip bonded ap-
proaches such as the one proposed in [10] did not prove suitable
for our application, as the thin dielectric and the silver epoxy
solder joints would not keep the ICs securely bonded to the
larger package. Therefore, we introduce below the key manu-
facturing and assembly steps that allowed the implementation
of the proposed array.
A. Antenna Board Lamination
The antenna board lamination process started by etching the
metallization patterns on the LCP Cores (Fig. 2). Prior to lami-
nation, a thin electroless nickel immersion gold (ENIG) coating
was applied to M3 and M5 to prevent oxidation on the metal
layers exposed to the environment, and to improve the reliability
of the solder joints of the SiGe TRICs. After the LCP Cores were
patterned, these were pressed together at 285 C using the two
-BAND 3861
was ob-
Fig. 13. Top view of the TRIC zone with photographs of the recessed cavity
(upper right) and the mounted TRIC with epoxy underfill (lower right).
LCP bond-ply laminates forming altogether the BFN and dig-
ital/dc regions shown in Fig. 2.
Subsequently, the bonded LCP regions were pressed together
with the Duroid substrate using the fastRise27 prepreg laminate.
An LCP bond ply is not used in this step because it would re-
quire a 285 C process that would cause the bond ply laminates
used in the BFN region to melt again, and hence, deteriorate the
alignment of the LCP Cores. The fastRise27 prepreg laminate
has a lower melting temperature, and being considerably thinner
(50 m) than the Duroid substrate (1.27 mm), has little effect on
the antenna performance. After board lamination, laser via-hole
perforations were done in the LCP layers and then copper plated
to provide the necessary BFN region interconnections. Finally,
an ENIG finish was applied to the M1 metallization.
The TRIC recessed cavities were then laser milled onto the
BFN region. As conventional laser perforations in organic sub-
strates are either hollow through cuts or are cuts terminated in
a solid metal sheet, terminating a recessed cavity in a metal-
lization pattern with multiple traces is a remarkable organic-
packaging achievement. Using an industrial-level setup, cavi-
ties such as the one shown in Fig. 13 were successfully milled
with a high yield and optimal repeatability.
B. TRIC Flip-Chip Bonding Procedure
Throughout the entire flip-chip bonding process, the antenna
board was mechanically fixed to a flat and thin plate, which has
a low thermal expansion coefficient that prevents board warping
during heating stages. With a reliable mechanical support, thin
solder-paste drops were manually applied to the metallization
pads within the recessed cavities, corresponding to the location
of the TRICs C4 bumps.
An automated chip-placement machine was then used to po-
sition the 32 TRICs on the board with an accuracy of 25 m.
The process involved automatically grabbing each TRIC, dip-
ping the C4 bumps on thin solder paste and placing the TRICs
on the recessed cavities. Afterwards, the board was placed on
an X-ray imaging system to verify the proper placement of the
3862 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 60, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2012

Fig. 15. Measured and simulated of the proposed antenna array in Tx and
Rx modes.

Fig. 14. Fabricated antenna array board and anechoic chamber setup.

TRICs, and then ran through a reflow oven to provide solid

solder joints through the solder paste.
The last part of the bonding procedure involved applying
high-performance epoxy underfill underneath each TRIC to se-
curely lock them to the antenna board. The antenna board was
placed on a hot plate at 80 C, and the epoxy underfill was ap-
plied manually using a liquid dispenser. Lastly, the board was
kept in an oven at 150 C for 60 min to bring the epoxy underfill
to a solid state. The finalized antenna board is shown in Fig. 14.

IV. ARRAY PERFORMANCE

A. Small-Signal Measurements
Using the measured -parameters of the packaged TRIC, we
set up a simulation in [30] including all the simulated -param-
eters from the individual BFN components and input RF tran-
sition 3-D models, and compared them to actual measure-
ments of the fabricated array in Tx and Rx mode (Fig. 15). We
see that the measurements show roughly the same shape and a
larger return loss than in simulation, which occurs because the
reflected signal is attenuated by the extra loss of the input net-
work, not accounted for by the simulator.
Near-field radiation-pattern measurements in he Tx and Rx
modes were performed in an automated anechoic chamber using
a waveguide probe, executing a 360 scan in the azimuth direc-
tion and a 60 in the elevation direction. The isotropic gain
of the antenna was determined then by comparing it to a sim-
ilar scan performed over a standard horn antenna. The near-field
measurements were post-processed using [31], and considering
the efficiency of the BFN, the far-field gain radiation patterns
were obtained in Tx and Rx modes (Fig. 16). The measured
broadside Rx gain is 20.1 dBi, and Tx gain, 14.6 dBi at 9.5 GHz.
Fig. 16. Estimated far-field radiation pattern based on near-field measurements
in the azimuthal direction.
Given that a large number of on-board dc and RF intercon-
nects motivated the usage of stripline as the fundamental RF
line scheme in the BFN, it is necessary to assess its impact on
the efficiency of the antenna array. We can start our analysis by
looking at the measured T/R gain over frequency and comparing
it to measurements performed on the 8 8 organic array pre-
sented in [1] (Fig. 17). The gain curves in Fig. 17 correspond to
the maximum broadside far-field gain at each frequency point
measured in the anechoic chamber setup. In effect, we see that,
for the array proposed in this study, there is a drop in the gain
DONADO MORCILLO et al.: ULTRA-THIN, HIGH-POWER, AND MULTILAYER ORGANIC ANTENNA ARRAY WITH T/R FUNCTIONALITY IN -BAND 3863

Fig. 18. Schematic diagram of EIRP measurement Configuration A and Con-

figuration B.

Fig. 17. Measured Tx and Rx broadside gain over frequency and comparison
with the T/R phased array presented in [1].
TABLE I
ARRAY EFFICIENCY COMPARISON OF EFFICIENCY DROP BETWEEN
PROPOSED ARRAY AND THE T/R ARRAY PRESENTED IN [1]
B. Large-Signal Measurements
To verify the large-signal performance of the proposed array
THE
(henceforth, the antenna under test (AUT) with Tx gain )
and to measure its EIRP, three point-to-point links were set up
using two additional reference antennas as follows.
Configuration A: Reference horn antenna 1 (RHA1, with
gain ) in the Rx end and AUT in the Tx end.
Configuration B: Reference horn antenna 2 (RHA2, with
gain ) in the Rx end and AUT in the Tx end.
Configuration C: RHA2 in the Rx end and RHA1 in the Tx
end.
The purpose of this experiment, illustrated in Fig. 18, is to
build a system of three link-budget equations with the gains of
each antenna as the unknowns

dB (2)
in Rx mode of about 7.42 dB, and in Tx mode, of 3.54 dB at dB (3)
9.5 GHz with respect to the array in [1]. dB (4)
Further scrutiny lead us to investigate the loss in the trans-
mission lines and active circuits that feed the radiating elements where (with )
(i.e., the patch antennas) of both arrays. Table I presents a dif- for each measurement configuration. Here, is the Rx power
ferential comparison of both boards in Tx and Rx modes. We measured by the spectrum analyzer; is the Rx cable loss;
see that the estimated difference in the gain of the Rx path be- and is the free-space loss of the point-to-point link. The
tween both prototypes is 6.66 dB, which is in good agreement system is then solved at different frequency points and levels of
with the measured Rx efficiency drop of 7.42 dB. Similarly, input power on the Tx end.
the estimated gain difference of the Tx path is about 4.16 dB, The measurements were performed outdoors, and RF ab-
which matches closely with the measured Tx efficiency drop of sorbers were deployed in strategic positions to minimize
3.54 dB. reflections that could introduce systematic errors to the mea-
The estimated quantities in this analysis are validated surements. A distance of 7.95 m was left between the Tx and
from previous characterization measurements [18], where the Rx antennas, which is well above the far-field distance of the
stripline attenuation was measured at 0.26 dB/cm, in contrast AUT.2 In addition, the phase center of all the antennas was
to the embedded microstrip and microstrip lines, measured kept within a height of 1.5 m from the floor level. Environ-
at 0.16 dB/cm and predominantly used in [1]. Besides the mental conditions were also monitored on the Tx side vicinity
stripline BFN, other sources of loss in the proposed array with temperatures ranging from 13 C to 16 C and relative
include a longer feed network, a larger number of transitions, humidity, from 49% to 55%.
deployment of epoxy underfill, and the integration of a CMOS On the Tx side, a signal generator was used in conjunction
switch in the radiating-element side of the TRIC. with an HPA to provide the necessary at different frequen-
It is important to observe that, despite the drop in small-signal cies. Considering the BFN loss and the power splits, a theoret-
gain, the high level of integration of the TRICs and the stripline ical dBm is necessary at the RF-feed plane to drive
BFN did allow the incorporation of a large number of TRICs on all TRIC PAs into compression in the Tx mode. On the Rx side,
the antenna board only a few centimeters away from the radi- 2With an AUT maximum dimension of cm at GHz,
ating elements. This strategic technology change caused a sig- where is the speed of light in vacuum, the estimated far-field distance
nificant improvement in the EIRP, as we will see next. m.
3864 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 60, NO. 12, DECEMBER 2012
Fig. 19. Measured EIRP with Configuration A and Configuration B for various
values of .
the reference horn antennas were connected to an Agilent PXA
spectrum analyzer through a coaxial cable (Rx cable).
Prior to the outdoor tests, laboratory measurements were
carried out to characterize each component of the Tx and Rx
back-ends. The output power of the Tx back end (signal gen-
erator HPA RF cables) was characterized by connecting it
directly to the spectrum analyzer, and measuring all levels
for the test frequencies and signal generator output-power
levels. Likewise, the Rx cable was characterized through
-parameter measurements with a network analyzer.
A sweep was performed from 0.0 to 37.3 dBm at
9.5 GHz, over 15 measurement points. Solutions to the
link-budget system of equations showed an average RHA1 gain
of 16.57 dBi with a standard deviation of 0.08 dBinominal
gain declared by the manufacturer of (16.5 0.75) dBi; and
an average RHA2 gain of 12.91 dBi with a standard deviation
of 0.14 dBinominal gain declared by the manufacturer from
13.0 to 13.5 dBi from 9.0 to 10.0 GHz. The AUT Tx gain
was found at 14.45 dBi (compared to the anechoic chamber
measurements at 14.6 dBi) for low levels of , compressing
all the way to 9.7 dBi for a dBm.
Having found the gains of each antenna for each power level,
the maximum EIRP emitted by the proposed array can be deter-
mined from (2) and (3) as follows:
(5)
where is the gain of the reference horn antenna for a
given configuration. Calculations show that EIRP saturates at
maximum values of 46.9 and 47.1 dBm, using Configuration
A and Configuration B, respectively. Fig. 19 summarizes the
EIRP measurements from Configuration A and Configuration
B at 9.5 GHz, compared with the ideal EIRP curve that assumes
an AUT small-signal gain of 14.45 dBi for all levels.
A similar treatment was applied to measurements carried out
over frequency to find out the EIRP at each frequency point
(Fig. 20). To investigate the behavior of the array in high-Tx
power over frequency, a measurement scan was carried out with
Configuration A over ten measurement points from 9 to 10 GHz
with dBm. Fig. 20 shows the results of this test
where an average EIRP of 46.7 dBm is observed with a standard
deviation of 0.8 dB over this frequency band.
Fig. 20. Measured EIRP over frequency using Configuration A for
dBm.
C. Estimation of
The NF of the array in Rx mode is calculated through the
following equation from [32]:
(6)
where represents the loss of the transmission line between
the radiating elements and the SiGe TRIC (i.e., the loss of the
embedded microstrip line); and , the NF and gain of the
TRIC in Rx mode, respectively; and , the loss between the RF
feed and the TRIC (stripline BFN and CPW-to-stripline transi-
tion). All quantities are positive real scalars greater than one (no
decibel quantities must be used).
The antenna figure-of-merit is then calculated using the
following expression, also from [32]:
(7)
where (the system temperature) is assumed to be equal to
(the temperature at which the antenna is pointed at) and equal
to the room temperature of 290 K.
With dB, dB, dB, and
dB, the NF of the array in Rx mode is estimated at
7.99 dB. Hence, with a measured array directivity of 25.98 dB,
we obtain a figure-of-merit dB.
D. Comparison With Other Studies
Including the proposed array, Table II shows the state-of-
the-art of antenna arrays implemented in organic packages,
comparing several performance parameters. Some of the key
parameters to notice are the Rx gain, the maximum EIRP
attained, the dc power consumption, and the total package
thickness. In this last parameter, the antenna-board thick-
ness considers only the height of the package including the
components in the T/R module, but excluding antenna-board
input/output connectors.
Some of the quantities in Table II are estimated based on the
observation of the photographs of the devices presented in the
references, as the authors did not give enough information to
fill in the table. Since the fabrication of active Tx antenna ar-
rays using organic substrates is a relatively new topic, and as
most of the literature available covers Tx- or Rx-only arrays, it
DONADO MORCILLO et al.: ULTRA-THIN, HIGH-POWER, AND MULTILAYER ORGANIC ANTENNA ARRAY WITH T/R FUNCTIONALITY IN
TABLE II
STATE-OF-THE-ART IN ORGANIC ANTENNA ARRAYS
was challenging to choose meaningful benchmark parameters
to compare different devices.
On the Tx side, we see that this study presents the thinnest
package and achieves the highest EIRP in the -band. On the
Rx side, although the estimated of this study is competi-
tive in comparison to other studies, better performance in the Rx
mode could be attained by reducing the loss of the BFN. Calcu-
lations show that by replacing 10 cm of stripline by embedded
microstrip, the insertion loss of the BFN can be decreased by
3 dB, which would, in turn, result in a 1.1-dB increase in .
V. CONCLUSIONS
For the first time and to the best of our knowledge, this paper
has reported on the highest EIRP achieved in an ultrathin or-
ganic antenna array in the -band. The packaging architecture
and design of the BFN were thoroughly discussed, providing
valuable insights on the design steps required to achieve the
innovative packaging scheme. The packaging innovations al-
lowed the integration of 32 SiGe T/R modules onto an antenna
board that occupies a volume of 0.18 cm 30.5 cm 25.4 cm.
Moreover, small-signal near-field measurements showed an Rx
gain of 20.1 dB at 9.5 GHz with a variation of 0.5 dB across a
1-GHz BW. Additional far-field measurements demonstrated a
maximum EIRP of 47.1 dBm at 9.5 GHz with a standard devi-
ation of 0.8 dB over a 1-GHz BW.
This study has also illustrated the performance tradeoffs re-
quired for a high level of integration and the achievement of a
low-profile ultra-thin organic package. For instance, we showed
that although a stripline BFN decreases the efficiency when
compared to microstrip for a similar package, a stripline BFN is
necessary to minimize RF signal coupling to digital/dc lines in
-BAND 3865
this densely populated antenna board. The stripline BFN also al-
lows the deployment of multiple TRICs a few centimeters away
from the radiating elements of the array.
Finally, the results presented in this study can be applied to
future efforts in organic antenna arrays, whereby multiple T/R
modules are embedded in large antenna boards.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Dr. T. Heath, B. Wilson,
B. Hudson, and Dr. R. Bales, all with the Georgia Tech Research
Institute, Atlanta, for their contributions in the development of
this project.
LCP and Duroid materials were supplied by the Rogers
Corporation, Rogers, CT.
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Carlos A. Donado Morcillo (S99M04) was
born in Panama City, Panama. He received the B.S.
degree in electronic engineering from the Univer-
sidad Catolica Santa Maria la Antigua, Panama
City, Panama, in 2002, the Master of Science degree
in electrical and computer engineering from the
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, in 2008,
and is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree at
the Georgia Institute of Technology.
From 2002 to 2006, he was with the National
Metrology Centre of Panama (CENAMEP), as the
Time and Frequency Laboratory Coordinator. Since 2007, he has been with
the Microwave Circuit Technology Group, Georgia Institute of Technology.
His research focuses on lightweight radar front-end technologies, microwave
filter design, thermal modeling of RF circuits, and broadband characterization
of novel RF materials.
Mr. Donado Morcillo is a reviewer for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON
MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES. He was the recipient of a 2006
Fulbright Scholarship. He was also the recipient of the Best Student Paper
Award of the 2012 IEEE Radio and Wireless Symposium, Santa Clara, CA.
Chad E. Patterson (S09M11) received the B.S.
and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, in 2006
and 2008, respectively, and is currently working
toward the Ph.D. degree at the Georgia Institute of
Technology.
He is currently a member of the Microwave
Circuit Technology (MircTech) Group, Georgia
Institute of Technology. His research is focused on
the design, fabrication, and characterization of mi-
crowave/millimeter-wave passive components and
packaging solutions for next-generation communication and radar antennas.
Prior to joining the MircTech team, he was an Intern with the Army Research
Laboratory, Adelphi, MD, where he was involved with high-frequency antenna
design and automated antenna measurement systems.
Mr. Patterson was the recipient of the 2012 IEEE Antennas and Propagation
Society (AP-S) Harold A. Wheeler Applications Prize Paper Award.
Benjamin Lacroix received the Ph.D. degree in elec-
trical engineering from the University of Limoges,
Limoges, France, in 2008.
Since 2008, he has been a Post-Doctoral Fellow
with the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. He
has developed fast miniature RF MEMS switched ca-
pacitors and high-speed reconfigurable low-loss dis-
tributed MEMS transmission lines (DMTL) PSs. He
has authored or coauthored over 20 publications in
peer-reviewed journals and conferences. His current
research is focused on reconfigurable microwave fil-
ters based on ferroelectric thin-film capacitors. He is also involved in the devel-
opment of lightweight phased arrays, characterization of next-generation mate-
rials, and other microwave and millimeter-wave components.
Dr. Lacroix is a reviewer for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE
THEORY AND TECHNIQUES.
DONADO MORCILLO et al.: ULTRA-THIN, HIGH-POWER, AND MULTILAYER ORGANIC ANTENNA ARRAY WITH T/R FUNCTIONALITY IN
Christopher Coen (S09) received the B.S. and M.S.
degrees in electrical engineering from the Georgia In-
stitute of Technology, Atlanta, in 2009 and 2012, re-
spectively, and is currently working toward the Ph.D.
degree at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
Since 2008, he has been a member of the SiGe
Devices and Circuits Group, Georgia Institute of
Technology. His primary research interests include
investigating relevant device physics and developing
integrated SiGe microwave circuits for space-based
radars and radiometers.
Mr. Coen was the recipient of the inaugural National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) Space Technology Research Fellowship in 2011.
Chung H. J. Poh (S08M11) received the B.Eng.
(Hons) degree in electrical and electronic engineering
from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore,
in 2005, and the M.S.E.C.E. and Ph.D. degrees in
electrical and computer engineering from the Georgia
Institute of Technology, Atlanta, in 2009 and 2011,
respectively.
From 2005 to 2007, he was a Member of Technical
Staff with DSO National Laboratories, Singapore,
where he is currently a Senior Member of Technical
Staff involved in communication and radar system
design. His research interests include microwave circuits, and systems for
communication and radar applications, SiGe HBT BiCMOS RF front-ends,
and packaging of ICs.
Dr. Poh was the recipient of the Singapore Defence Technology Prize (R&D
Team Award) in 2010.
John D. Cressler (S86A91SM91F01) re- Paper Award of the 3rd IEEE International Conference on Microwave and
ceived the Ph.D. degree from Columbia University,
New York, NY, in 1990.
From 1984 to 1992, he was with IBM Research.
From 1992 to 2002, he was on the faculty of Auburn
University. Since 2002, he has been on the faculty
of the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he
is currently the Ken Byers Professor of Electrical
and Computer Engineering. He and his team have
authored or coauthored over 500 papers. He coau-
thored Silicon-Germanium Heterojunction Bipolar
Transistors (Artech House, 2003), authored Reinventing Teenagers: The Gentle
Art of Instilling Character in Our Young People (Xlibris, 2004), edited Silicon
Heterostructure Handbook: Materials, Fabrication, Devices, Circuits, and
Applications of SiGe and Si Strained-Layer Epitaxy (CRC, 2006), authored
Silicon Earth: Introduction to the Microelectronics and Nanotechnology Rev-
olution (CRC, 2009), and coedited Extreme Environment Electronics (CRC,
2012). During his academic career, he has graduated 38 Ph.D. students and
36 M.S. students. His research interests include Si-based (SiGe/strained-Si)
heterostructure devices and technology, mixed-signal circuits built from these
devices, radiation effects, cryogenic electronics, device-to-circuit interactions,
noise and reliability physics, device-level simulation, and compact circuit
modeling.
Dr. Cressler has been an associate editor for the IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-
STATE CIRCUITS, the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NUCLEAR SCIENCE, and the IEEE
TRANSACTIONS ON ELECTRON DEVICES, for which he is currently the editor-in-
chief. He has been active on numerous IEEE conference program committees,
including as the Technical Program chair of the 1998 ISSCC, the 2007 NSREC,
and the 2011 BCTM. He has been the recipient of a number of awards for both
his teaching and research.
-BAND 3867
John Papapolymerou (S90M99SM04F11)
received the B.S.E.E. degree from the National
Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece, in
1993, and the M.S.E.E. and Ph.D. degrees from The
University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, in 1994 and
1999, respectively.
From 1999 to 2001, he was an Assistant Professor
with the Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson. During
the summers of 2000 and 2003, he was a Visiting
Professor with the University of Limoges, Limoges,
France. From 2001 to 2005 and 2005 to 2009, he was an Assistant Professor
and Associate Professor, respectively, with the School of Electrical and
Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, where he is
currently a Professor. He has authored or coauthored over 300 publications
in peer-reviewed journals and conferences. He is an Associate Editor for The
International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies. His research
interests include the implementation of micromachining techniques and MEMS
devices in microwave, millimeter-wave and terahertz circuits and the devel-
opment of both passive and active planar circuits on semiconductor (Si/SiGe,
GaAs) and organic substrates [LCP, low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC)]
for SoC/SoP RF front ends.
Dr. Papapolymerou is currently an associate editor for the IEEE
TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES. From 2009
to 2011, he was chair of Commission D, U.S. National Committee, URSI. He
was the associate editor for IEEE MICROWAVE AND WIRELESS COMPONENT
LETTERS (20042007) and the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ANTENNAS AND
PROPAGATION (20042010). During 2004, he was the chair of the IEEE
Microwave Theory and Techniques (MTT)/Antennas and Propagation (AP)
Atlanta Chapter. He was the recipient of the 2012 IEEE Antennas and Prop-
agation Society (AP-S) H. A. Wheeler Prize Paper Award, the 2010 IEEE
AP-S John Kraus Antenna Award, the 2009 IEEE Microwave Theory and
Techniques-Society (MTT-S) Outstanding Young Engineer Award, the 2009
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Outstanding Junior Faculty
Award, the 2004 Army Research Office (ARO) Young Investigator Award,
the 2002 National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER Award, the Best
Millimeter-Wave Technology (ICMMT2002), Beijing, China, and the 1997
Outstanding Graduate Student Instructional Assistant Award presented by
the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), The University of
Michigan Chapter. His students have also been recipients of several awards,
including the Best Student Paper Award presented at the 2004 IEEE Topical
Meeting on Silicon Monolithic Integrated Circuits in RF Systems, the 2007
IEEE MTT-S Graduate Fellowship, and the 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 IEEE
MTT-S Undergraduate Scholarship/Fellowship.