SBIR-STTR Award

The 3DIC concept is based on using multiple levels of thin film dielectric material, each having its own ground plane and microwave circuits, to stack up multiple circuit functions on top of each other. This approach reduces the IC footprint thereby reducing the usage of the semiconductor real estate, leading to substantial reduction in cost as well as improvement in performance. The phase 1 technical objective is to assess the feasibility of microwave 3DIC concept and to develop a road map for the realization of practical microwave 3DICs for both commercial and military applications.

AMCOM Communications, Inc. proposes a Phase II program of Microwave 3DIC to develop a new microwave circuit configuration based on the multi-level thin film transmission line (T-line) concept for the US microwave industry, and to develop a X-Band 3DIC HBT power amplifier for Air Force radar and communication applications. To accomplish this goal, we will develop a competitive 3DIC product of X-band HBT MMIC power amplifier for both DoD and commercial applications. In the Phase I Program, we have made excellent progresses in the development of a number of innovative ideas and theoretical models to solve the potential dielectric adhesion problem. We have also proposed a number of unique circuits such as broadband balun, transformer, phase shifter, etc in the 3DIC format. These unique circuits are not easily realizable in the convensional MIC format, but they can be realized easily in the 3DIC format with small size and good performance. The Phase II program will fabricate these circuits to be included in the 3DIC library; as well as a X-band 3DIC HBT power amplifier as a builiding block for radar and communication applications.

Keywords:
3dic mmic thin film transmission line three dimensional integrated circuit