MODELING, DESIGN, FABRICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF MINIATURIZED PASSIVES AND INTEGRATED EM SHIELDS IN 3D RF PACKAGES A Dissertation Presented to The Academic Faculty by Srikrishna Sitaraman In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology DECEMBER 2015 Copyright© 2015 by SRIKRISHNA SITARAMAN MODELING, DESIGN, FABRICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF MINIATURIZED PASSIVES AND INTEGRATED EM SHIELDS IN 3D RF PACKAGES Approved by: Dr. Rao R. Tummala, Advisor Dr. Peter J. Hesketh School of Electrical and Computer School of Mechanical Engineering Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology Georgia Institute of Technology Dr. John Papapolymerou Dr. Markondeya Raj Pulugurtha School of Electrical and Computer School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology Georgia Institute of Technology Dr. Andrew F Peterson School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Georgia Institute of Technology Date Approved: August 18, 2015 Dedicated to my parents, sister, and fiancée. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank and express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Prof. Rao Tummala for giving me the opportunity to work on a leading edge project at the Georgia Tech 3D systems packaging research center. He has been a constant source of inspiration. His vision and advice has greatly helped in shaping my thesis. I am extremely grateful for having been mentored and advised by Prof. Tummala. I would also like to thank my mentor Dr. Raj for his invaluable support and mentorship over the years. His technical depth has helped guide me every step of the way. I have learnt much more than I could have ever hoped for. Next, I would like to thank my committee members: Prof. Andrew Peterson, Prof. John Papapolymerou, Prof. Peter Hesketh, and Dr. Venky Sundaram for being part of my PhD committee and for all the valuable suggestions and feedback. I would like to extend special thanks to Dr. Venky Sundaram, Dr. Junki Min, Dr. Fuhan Liu, and Dr. Vanessa Smet for their timely guidance through the years. I have had the privilege to work with a very knowledgeable and enthusiastic team at the Georgia Tech PRC and I would like to thank Dr. Himani Sharma, Prof. Klaus Jergen Wolter, Dr. Melinda Varga, Mr. Sung Jin Kim, and Mr. Nitesh Kumbhat for all of their invaluable support over the course of my stay at Georgia Tech. Next I would like to thank the PRC staff: Karen May, Patricia Allen, Brian McGalde, Tracy Monroe, Chris White, and Jason Bishop for their patient support over my stay at the GT PRC. I would also like to extend a special thanks to all the visiting engineers: Yoichiro Sato (AGC), Tomonori Ogawa (AGC), Yuya Suzuki (Zeon Chemicals), Toshitake Seki (NGK-NTK), Makoto Kobayashi (Namics Corporation), Satomi Kawamoto (Namics Corporation), Yutaka Takagi (NGK-NTK), Charlie Russel (AVX), and Ryuta Furuya (Ushio). iv My stay in Atlanta would not have been as good but for the support of my friends: Vijay Narayanan, Prasaanth Muralidharan, Mithun Udayakumar, Gopi Sundaresan, Gokul Kumar, Vijay Sukumaran, Koushik Ramachandran, Saumya Gandhi, Dibyajat Mishra, Kaushiik Bhaskaran, Sudarsanan Krishnan, Vignesh Somasundaram, Uppili Raghunathan, Swarrnna Karthik Parthasarathy, Srikanth Dwarakanath, Shreyas Srinivas, Karthik Raghavan, Chandrashekaran Nair, Bhupender Singh Chauhan, Ninad Sahane, Xian Qin, Sadia Khan, Vivek Sridharan, Nithya Sankaran, Bruce Chou, Brett Sawyer, Timothy Huang, Kaya Demir, Zihan Wu, Chinmay Honrao, William Vis, Tapobrata, Qiao Chen, Hao Lu, Gary Menezes, Yushu Wang, Jialing Tong, Min Suk Kim, Teng Sun, Parthasarathy Chakraborthy, Florian Nebe, and Tailong Shi. Lastly I would like to thank my parents who have made me what I am today. I am extremely grateful for the love and support of my family. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... ix SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1 Strategic Need ...................................................................................................... 1 Objectives of this Research .................................................................................. 9 Research Challenges ........................................................................................... 10 Approach to RF Module Integration with Thin Passives and EMI Shields ....... 12 Research Tasks ................................................................................................... 15 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE SURVEY.......................................................................... 17 Passive Miniaturization ...................................................................................... 17 EMI Shielding .................................................................................................... 23 RF Module Integration ....................................................................................... 34 Summary and Thesis R&D Focus ...................................................................... 39 CHAPTER 3: MINIATURIZATION OF WLAN DIPLEXER........................................ 42 Objectives ........................................................................................................... 42 Approach ............................................................................................................ 43 Modeling and Design of Novel Filters ............................................................... 44 Fabrication and Characterization of Filters ........................................................ 56 Design and Demonstration of 3D IPD Diplexer ................................................. 59 Summary ............................................................................................................. 67 vi CHAPTER 4: MINIATURIZED COMPONENT-LEVEL EMI SHIELDING................ 69 Objectives ........................................................................................................... 69 Approach ............................................................................................................ 70 Modeling EM Radiation in RF Modules ............................................................ 71 Analytical Material Modeling - Material and Multi-layer Stack-up Design ...... 74 Modeling and Design of Component-level EMI Shields ................................... 85 Fabrication and Characterization of EMI Shields .............................................. 90 Summary ............................................................................................................. 93 CHAPTER 5: DESIGN AND DEMONSTRATION OF MINIATURIZED RF MODULES .................................................................................................................... 95 Objectives ........................................................................................................... 95 Module Description ............................................................................................ 96 Design and Simulation of WLAN RF Module on Organic Substrate ................ 98 Fabrication, Assembly, and Characterization of RF Module on organic substrates .................................................................................................... 107 Design and Simulation of RF Module on Glass Substrate ............................... 113 Fabrication and Characterization of RF Modules on Glass Substrates ............ 119 Summary ........................................................................................................... 122 CHAPTER 6: SUMMARY AND FUTURE WORK ..................................................... 124 Key Contributions ............................................................................................ 127 Future Research Directions .............................................................................. 127 List of Publications ........................................................................................... 129 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 131 vii LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1 Parameters and Targets of the Proposed Research ............................................. 9 Table 2 Parameters and Targets for WLAN Diplexers .................................................. 15 Table 3 Parameters and Targets for EMI Shielding ....................................................... 15 Table 4 Parameters and Targets for RF Modules .......................................................... 16 Table 5 Parameters and Targets for EMI shielding ....................................................... 42 Table 6 Inductor and Capacitor Values ......................................................................... 47 Table 7 Performance Specifications of the WLAN Diplexer ........................................ 59 Table 8 Targets for EMI Shielding ...............................................................................