History and the Latest Progress in Antenna Packaging Technology: Part 1: Multilayer solutions

The demand for millimeter-wave (mmWave) bands is growing due to the need for high-throughput communications, high-resolution sensing, and data-intensive applications such as massive Internet of Things (IoT), virtual reality, augmented reality, and metaverse platforms. Designing antennas for mmWave bands, unlike traditional microwave bands, requires multidimensional considerations such as antenna design methodologies, appropriate material selection, high-performance packaging technologies, and integration with surrounding circuitry. Antenna-in-package (AiP), which integrates transceiver (TRX) dies and antennas into a standard surface-mount package, effectively leverages advanced antenna engineering and heterogeneous integration processes. Codesigned with silicon integrated circuits (ICs) and built on the same silicon dies, antenna-on-chip (AoC) benefits significantly from frequency increases into the terahertz (THz) range. AoC takes advantage of silicon’s low surface roughness and monolithic integration to effectively incorporate antennas alongside peripheral ICs. Glass technology is emerging as a strong candidate for large-volume high-performance applications due to its low dielectric loss, similar thermal expansion coefficient to silicon, large-area panel/wafer size, and low surface roughness. Glass core AiP, which utilizes the low dielectric loss of glass, and antenna-on-display (AoD), which exploits the optical transparency of glass, are both promising concepts for 5G/6G mmWave applications. In this two-part article, we provide a comprehensive overview of antennas in packaging technologies in the mmWave band. In Part 1, we investigate design methodologies and features from different perspectives: material (organic or inorganic) and application [base station (BS) or user mobile terminal (UMT)]. We also review the historical development of multilayer antenna packaging. We then discuss the packaging integration of antenna arrays and radio-frequency ICs (RFICs), which are silicon-based phased-array systems. In Part 2, we focus on emerging techniques for antenna packaging, such as silicon, glass, and 3D integration.