Glass ceramics functional substrate development

Operating frequencies required for today's wireless telecommunication electronics have increased from hundreds of megahertz to a few gigahertz (GHz). The use of the GHz band is enabled in the wireless market by passive and active components in microwave integrated circuits (MIC) or monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC) packages which meet the need for high performance and lower cost. There are still a few technical problems that need to be resolved in these packages. Among these are high Q inductors and capacitors which cannot be built cost effectively in the sizes required. Technological developments have yielded new low temperature glass-ceramic materials which cost effectively incorporate integrated passive components. These integrated components include inductors, capacitors, impedance matching SAW filter circuits and band pass filters. This presentation describes the development of this material and design of a test vehicle to determine applicability in to high frequency wireless applications.