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Planar Transmission Lines
Published in S. Raghavan, ®, 2019
The integration of miniature solid-state microwave devices with planar transmission lines has led to the evolution of MICs. Recently, a new generation of microwave components having a much higher degree of miniaturization, wider bandwidth capability, multifunction integration, and higher system reliability is possible through “monolithic technology.” A monolithic millimeter wave integrated circuits (MMIC) is a microwave circuit in which the active and passive components are fabricated on the same semiconductor substrate. Monolithic circuits operating in the millimeter-wave region from 30 to 300 GHz are called monolithic millimeter-wave integrated circuits (MMICs). The additional term “monolithic” is necessary to distinguish them from the established MIC, which is a hybrid microwave circuit in which a number of discrete active and passive components are integrated on to a common substrate using solder or conductive epoxy.
Semiconductor Process Reliability
Published in Dana Crowe, Alec Feinberg, Design for Reliability, 2017
Perhaps the most frequently used test vehicle is the IC. For GaAs devices, this is more commonly known as a monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC). This is often an actual product, but it may also be a circuit designed specifically to exercise all of the discrete elements of the process. Using an actual product as a reliability test structure usually means that fixturing and test requirements have already been addressed for manufacturing purposes and that an ample supply of devices is readily available. Another advantage is the direct applicability of the results of reliability studies on a product to that same product or product family. The major difficulty with using an MMIC is that electrical, statistical, and physical failure analyses can be complicated, since the test vehicle is more complex (see Figure 6.1) than discrete elements.
Monolithic Microwave IC Technology
Published in Mike Golio, RF and Microwave Semiconductor Device Handbook, 2017
MMIC: Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit: The word monolith refers to a single block of stone that does not (in general) permit individual variations. MMICs are made of gallium arsenide (GaAs), silicon, or other semiconducting materials. In a MMIC, all of the components needed to make a circuit (resistors, inductors, capacitors, transistors, diodes, transmission lines) are formed onto a single wafer of material using a series of process steps. Attractive features of MMICs over competing hybrid (combination of two or more technologies) circuits are that a multitude of nearly identical circuits can be processed simultaneously with no assembly (soldering) using batch processing manufacturing techniques. A disadvantage is that circuit adjustment after manufacture is difficult or impossible. As a consequence, significantly more effort is required to use accurate computer-aided design (CAD) techniques to design MMICs that will perform as desired without adjustment. Of course, eventually assembly and packaging of MMICs is performed in order to connect them into a system such as a DBS receiver. MMICs are only cost effective for very high volume applications because the cost of the initial design is very high, as is the cost of wafer manufacture. These costs can only be recovered through high volume manufacture.
Design, Analysis and Validation of MCP Package for GaAs Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits Packaging
Published in IETE Journal of Research, 2022
Ravi Gugulothu, Sangam Bhalke, Lalkishore K, Ramakrishna Dasari
Integrated circuits revolutionized the entire world of electronics and are extensively used in all electronic systems covering all applications. A monolithic integrated circuit accommodates all discrete components on a single semiconductor material to make the IC highly dense to meet the requirements of portability and high speed. A Monolithic Microwave IC (MMIC) is a category of integrated circuits that are operated at microwave and millimetre wave frequencies. As GaAs µGaAs = 8500cm2/V.sec, compared to µSi = 1500cm2/V.sec at ambient, energy bandgap of 1.43 eV and resistivity greater than 108 Ω-cm, made GaAs more suitable for microwave and millimetre wave integrated circuits fabrication, which are best suitable for space application as well as best suitable for military applications. Ceramic substrates and their properties are suitable for GaAs [1] based package design [2] for good RF signal transfer from input to output. These applications demand an IC be packaged in a way to meet the reliability requirements with lower drift in the basic parameters at leak test, thermal shock, active burn-in test and active life test. To satisfy the challenging demands of low noise, handling high gain and delivering high power with high-density packaging. This is executed by using real-time simulators considering suitable materials and package fabrication techniques in advanced 3D EM simulation software.