Design issues of BAW employment in 3D integrated sensor nodes

An advanced sensor node for direct tire pressure monitoring is presented, where the shock-sensitive crystal is replaced by a bulk acoustic wave (BAW) based resonator. Since the applied components are arranged in a 3D integrated stack, a wide range of new design issues arise. This paper investigates system issues due to temperature gradients in a 3D stack as well as the radio frequency (RF) characteristics of through silicon vias (TSV) in particular focusing on their electrical efficiency.