Characterization of Embedded and Thinned RF Chips

This work studies the effect of thinning down chips with transmission line structures for flexible embedding technology. Test chips with 90 Ω grounded coplanar waveguide (G-CPW) transmission lines have been designed and manufactured to characterize the high-frequency performance before and after embedding in sheet molding compound (SMC), and thinning down from 300 µm to 20 µm, Molding first technology enables single-die or multiple-die thinning with the embedding material while being held in the exact position, where the subsequent fan-out copper (Cu) redistribution layer (RDL) structuring realizes the direct contacts to the embedded chip, followed by semi-additive manufacturing of traces. The embedded and thinned chips are characterized by S-parameter measurements in the frequency range from 20 MHz to 65 GHz using a vector network analyzer (VNA). The results show the feasibility of the examined embedding and thinning processes which are suitable for millimeter wave (mmWave) components as shown by the example of a G-CPW transmission line without degrading its RF performance in terms of characteristic impedance and attenuation.