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A highly modular LTCC packaging technology for

Ka-band satellite systems


Tobias Klein, Reinhard Kulke and Carsten Guenner
IMST GmbH
Kamp-Lintfort, Germany
Email: klein@imst.de

AbstractThe complexity of todays satellite systems is ever-


growing and system weight and size of the subcomponents are
becoming even more critical as the number of channels increases.
A possible solution for achieving small systems, while maintaining
reliability, is the use of the LTCC process. The packaging
technology presented in this paper implies a modular concept,
i.e. the system consists of a number of small, hermetically sealed
LTCC modules connected on a carrier substrate. The module
buildup, as well as the interconnections and external interfaces
are discussed in detail.

I. I NTRODUCTION
The Low Temperature Cofired Ceramics (LTCC) process
is a known and tested technology for space applications.
Among its advantages is the possibility to integrate Monolithic
Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMICs) and passive structures Fig. 1. Keramis payload for the TET-1 satellite. On the left 6 different LTCC
modules (blue substrates) are placed on the carrier substrate. A number of
into a single, homogeneous substrate and a certain capability LDOs, as well as FPGAs (redundant) are placed on the right
of circuit-miniaturization due to the typically high permittivity
(r > 5). The substrate has a good thermal conductivity
(typ. 10 times better than conventional Printed Circuit Boards demonstrator for a BFN in LTCC is presented and discussed.
(PCBs) [1]) and is by itself hermetically sealed.
The basic idea of the presented technology is to achieve full II. K ERAMIS PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY
shielding for each single LTCC module, i.e. no additional
external shielding / housing becomes necessary. The modules A. Bare die integration and Multiple Chip Modules (MCMs)
are kept as small as possible. This, on the one hand, ensures As mentioned above each LTCC module is in itself hermet-
a good production yield and reduces the mechanical stress ically sealed.
during operation (thermal expansion and vibrations). On the This is achieved by brazing a kovar-frame onto the LTCC and
other hand, a larger number of small modules means a higher sealing this frame with a metallic lid after assembly. Kovar
number of required interconnections. This includes DC and was chosen as material since its thermal expansion is close
digital signals, as well as RF signals up to 31 GHz. It is to that of the LTCC and the seal is therefore maintained over
therefore necessary to implement LTCC to carrier transitions temperature. The size of the frame depends on the modules
that fulfill the bandwidth requirements and allow a robust operating frequency, since resonances with the housing have
assembly. to be avoided in most applications.
The development of this technology is part of ongoing research The general assembly is shown in Fig. 2 each cavity holds
projects in cooperation with the German space agency (DLR) one or more chips, while each module has at least one cavity.
and will be part of the LEO TET-1 satellite [9] for on-orbit If the connection between two chips is very critical in terms
verification (see Fig. 1). The details of this technology are of matching and distance, a greater module with two cavities
handled in section II of this paper. might be used: The chips are directly connected within the
A special case of applications for this modular technology LTCC and a transition to the carrier board is avoided.
is the realization of Beam Forming Networks (BFN) for Low frequency components, for example Low-Drop-Out Reg-
Multiple Feed per Beam (MFB) reflector antennas. In these ulators (LDO), can be integrated into a single big cavity, as
antennas a number of input signals are split into a larger box modes are not of relevance. This means that a considerable
number of outputs forming sub-apertures of a four-color feed reduction in system size can be achieved if compared to
topology. Such systems enable a dynamic resource allocation solutions where packaged LDOs are used instead of bare dies.
between satellite services. In section III of this paper a first The passive circuitry is realized within the LTCC substrate,

978-1-4673-4688-7/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE


Fig. 2. Drawing of the bare die integration. The chips are placed into LTCC
cavities that are closed by covar frames (grey). Side view is shown on the
left, top view on the right.

Fig. 3. Concept of the LTCC to carrier transition. It consists of a Stripline to


e.g. with shielded striplines. The only exception to this are coaxial transition within the substrate and a BGA connection to the substrate.
filters of higher order that would result in too much insertion The sketch only shows the bottom ground of the stripline. The top-ground
and side vias for full shielding are not visible
loss if implemented in LTCC.

B. Internal interfaces
far enough to the inside to realize two rows of balls between
One of the main challenges of this modular approach is that itself and the border. Thus the structure is well shielded, which
more transitions are needed compared to the realization on is necessary to avoid an external shielding.
a large substrate. Each connection from LTCC to the carrier The bandwidth of the transition is mainly limited by the
board has a higher probability of failure than a simple line parasitics introduced by the via fences and balls and is shown
on a substrate. It is therefore mandatory to find a transition in Fig. 5. For a return loss better than 20 dB a bandwidth of 22
geometry that is sufficiently robust. GHz (25 GHz for 15 dB) was realized with this structure. If
In general this means that the structure (pads, line width using LGA soldering instead of BGA the bandwidth increases
etc.) needs a certain size and should be well away from the to 35 GHz, but also introduces a challenge in terms of
technological limits. This, however, stands in contrast to the positioning accuracy during soldering.
required broadband behavior, since parasitics generally scale For most applications the limited bandwidth of the BGA
with structure size. solution is more than sufficient. In typical down converter
The protoflight model for the TET-1 mission contains mod- applications the first module in the system will contain the
ules using wire-bond and Land-Grid-Array (LGA) assemblies. mixer, so that the modules output frequency will be below
Both processes are well established and investigated ([3], [4]). 22 GHz. A detailed derivation of the BGA transition layout is
A recent approach in this research effort is the use of Ball- presented in [5].
Grid-Arrays (BGA). This process provides superior repeata-
bility and is not subject to voids forming in the ground plane C. Waveguide interface
connection, as is the case in LGA soldering. The concept of Systems that are interfacing with the satellites antennas
this second level interconnect is shown in Fig. 3 the start of often need waveguide connectors at their in- or outputs. It is
the transition is a stripline in one of the upper LTCC layers. important to note that for such a connector a direct contact
The first part of the structure is a stripline to coaxial transition.
The outer diameter of the line is chosen to match the ball grid,
i.e. is approx. 1.2 mm wide. The inner diameter is dimensioned
in such way that the characteristic impedance of the line is
about 50 Ohms.
In contrast to the drawing in Fig. 3 neither inner nor outer
conductor can be realized by continuous metal, but consist
of vias. The outer conductor is built of a two row staggered
via fence, while the inner conductor is made of a single via
column with catch pads at each LTCC layer. A cut through
the EMPIRE model is shown in Fig. 4, depicting the described
stripline to coaxial transition.
For the connection to the carrier board, a standard ball grid
with 0.6 mm ball diameter is used. These balls also approxi-
mate a coaxial line. The distance between the balls is chosen
to realize a 50 Ohms characteristic impedance.
The carrier substrate consists of 2 layers of Rogers 6002 and
the middle conductor will also form a stripline. As within the
LTCC the last part of the structure is therefore formed by a
coaxial to stripline transition (not shown). Fig. 4. EMPIRE XCcel model of the LTCC to carrier transition. The
The transition is placed near the border of the LTCC, but is conductors of the coaxial line are approximated by via fences.
Fig. 7. Empire XCcel model of the LTCC to waveguide transition. The via
Fig. 5. Scattering parameters of the LTCC to carrier transition with BGA fences forming two parallel SIWs are shown on the left side of the picture
soldering. Operation bandwidth is DC to 22 GHz

to 31 GHz) with a return loss better that -15 dB. The operating
between LTCC and metal should be avoided, since both frequency is mainly set by the height of the LTCC. This means
materials exhibit very different thermal expansion coefficients. that a lower frequency requires a higher number of layers.
On the other hand, it is desired to avoid the use of thinfilm Both LTCC SIWs are short circuited at the top. The stripline
substrates etc., which are used in typical waveguide to mi- feed is in contrast to Fig. 6 located near the bottom of
crostrip transitions. the LTCC and a via transition very similar to that of section
The basic idea of the transition, depicted in Fig. 6, is to form II-B is used to reach the desired stripline layer at the top of
a substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) within the LTCC and the module.
the carrier substrate, which is then connected to the external
waveguide. A stripline to SIW transition is added within the D. Carrier substrate
LTCC. The carrier substrate (Rogers 6002) is laminated on a thin
The standard WR28 waveguide that is used in the satel- aluminum back plate. As the whole board should not use any
additional shielding, the RF routing is done with striplines. As
hinted above, the losses of this substrate are lower than those
of the LTCC. Filters with lower insertion loss may therefore
be realized here. Beside the RF routing most of the DC and
digital connections are placed unto the carrier.

III. M ODULAR ANTENNA FEEDS FOR MFB SYSTEMS


MFB antennas are capable of transmitting / receiving a four-
Fig. 6. Concept of the LTCC to waveguide transition. The LTCC (blue)
contains a stripline to SIW transition. The waveguide (WG) port is formed color topology with a single reflector antenna. The reflector
by a metal part connected to the backside of the carrier feed aperture is divided into sub-apertures that are fully con-
figurable in terms of amplitude and phase. These sub-apertures
lites receive path has inner dimensions of approximately may then be allocated according to the current needs [6]. In a
7.1 x 3.55 mm2 . This is too big to be realized within an LTCC four colour topology either four frequencies or two frequencies
substrate integrated waveguide, since the cutoff frequency of with different polarisations are used for adjacent sub-apertures
higher order modes would lie within the band of operation to allow for an efficient frequency reuse. The drawback of
(LTCC has high r !). This is resolved by splitting the LTCC- this concept is that complex combiner / divider networks are
SIW into two parallel waveguides, effectively increasing the necessary to create the required number of feeds. Current MFB
cut-off frequencies of the undesired propagation modes. antenna system use combiner networks in hollow waveguide
In consequence the stripline to SIW transition within the LTCC technology. These networks provide very low losses, but are
has to feed / combine both SIWs into a single stripline. As in complicated and heavy assemblies.
the coaxial transition described above, the walls of the SIWs Current MFB antenna research efforts include the design of
cannot be realized as solid metal, but must be approximated by multichannel amplifier blocks, where every sub-feed of the
via fences. The final structure, as shown in Fig. 7, again uses a reflector feed has its own amplifier, e.g. an LNA. In this case,
two row via fence. The common wall of the SIWs only consists the combiner network no longer needs to be low loss and
of a single row of vias, which leads to a certain coupling LTCC-based circuits may be used. In the following sections
between both waveguides. The SIW is extended through the a technology is proposed, that allows the creation of arbitrary
carrier substrate. The permittivity of Rogers 6002 is approx. feed-arrays. As in the first part of this paper the system consists
2.94 and the splitting into two waveguides is not necessary. of small LTCC modules that are placed on a carrier board.
This structure covers the full communication band (27.5 GHz A very important requirement for these arrays is that their
in- / outputs must be placed directly under the corresponding shows all four cell types. An arbitrary array consists of exactly
waveguide of the reflector feed. The latter are placed in one core cell and as many inner cells, shown in the bottom
distances of 0.7 or more. right of the figure, as necessary. The border of the array is
made of the two border cell types as depicted in the left part
A. Cell structure and array construction of the figure.
In order to create an array of arbitrary size and shape, it is As this development is part of ongoing research, only the core
divided into hexagonal sub-arrays containing 7 reflector-feeds. cell has been manufactured so far for a proof of concept. A
These sub-apertures overlap as depicted in Fig. 8, to achieve detailed description of the core cell layout is given in [7].
full area coverage with the antenna.
The 19 outputs of the feed network are in the center of B. Performance and Measurement results of the core cell
each hexagon, while the surrounding elements are shared by For the measurements presented in the following paragraph,
two adjacent hexagons. Each of these cells first combines Mini-SMP connectors were mounted onto the LTCC for ease
the two shared signals, which are at different frequencies for of testing. However, these connectors pose a limitation to the
this network. These combined signals are then fed to a 7:1 in- and output matching of the module. Prior to fabrication
combiner. The corresponding output therefore consists of the thorough 3D-EM simulations using EMPIRE have been car-
four different frequencies (colors). For the practical realization ried out and are compared to the measurements.
of the LTCC four different types of LTCC modules / cell types The main requirement for the module is a flat transmission
are necessary. The core cell is a full hexagon with the combiner in the bandwidth of operation (27.5 to 31 GHz). The ideal
functionality as described above. All other types are reduced transmission coefficient would be -8.45 dB for a 1:7 split with
versions of this. The overlapping of two modules means that an additional loss of 3 dB for the neighbor-cell combiner
one of them is missing the corresponding reflector feed, since stage. Further losses include ohmic and dielectric losses of the
it is located on the other module. The signal of this feed is DuPont 943 system, but also mismatch from resistor tolerances
then connected to the cell through the carrier substrate. Fig. 9 and resistor length effects. The overall transmission coefficient
was simulated as -14.5 dB in a bandwidth of 8 GHz as shown
in Fig. 11. The measured insertion loss is consistent with the
simulation, but exhibits a variation of about 1 dB, i.e. measured
losses are higher than simulated.
The outputs of the power divider will be connected to a phase
shifter MMIC. In order to reduce undesired phase-frequency
dependencies the output impedance of the divider should be
well matched. The design target was a return loss better than
-15 dB. As can be seen from Fig. 12 the return loss is not as
good as simulated. However, this is expected since the Mini-
SMP connectors that have been used are not well matched.
Concerning isolation three cases have to be considered: First,
there are always two ports directly isolated from each other
by a single 1:2 Wilkinson divider within the combiner circuit.
These ports have the lowest isolation, but are placed in such
Fig. 8. Cell structure of an array with 106 reflector feeds and 19 outputs to way that the corresponding beams are of different color.
the satellite payload Second, the central output, i.e. the main beam output, is always
isolated from all other ports by 40 dB. Since all adjacent
cells handle a different frequency, this, too, is not critical. The

Fig. 9. The four different cell types for the LTCC. Overlap connections are Fig. 10. LTCC realisation of the core cell. The reflector feeds are replaced
drawn as black lines, while the reflector feeds are marked by circles my Mini SMP to simplify measurements
most important isolation is that of neighbour cells handling
the same color. For this case both outputs are isolated by the
full combiner circuit (see Fig. 13). The isolation is better than
39 dB within the band of operation. Despite a high resistor
tolerance of 30% the circuit meets the simulation results really
well.

IV. C ONCLUSION
The LTCC process enables system manufacturers to im-
plement their functionality in a homogenous, standardized
technology. The basic idea of the presented approach is to split
the system into sub functions that are realized in small LTCC
modules, connected on a carrier substrate. This has the benefit
of both high production yield and reusability of these building
blocks. The technology thus has the potential to reduce design
Fig. 13. Isolation between neighbour cells with the same color
costs.
Furthermore the LTCC modules are hermetically sealed and
can carry a number of bare dies, reducing system size, weight housing can be avoided. This technology is already fully
and cost, since packaged chips are no longer necessary. By qualified and will be part of its first space mission on board
using the described interconnect technologies, the RF paths of the DLRs TET-1 satellite.
of the system are fully shielded and an additional external The same modular approach can be used to implement arbi-
trary feed arrays for MFB antennas. Here, a first demonstrator
was realized and measured, showing promising performance
for future development.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors wish to thank all partners of the Keramis-
2 and Multifeed consortium for excellent cooperation and
discussions. These activities are funded by the German Fed-
eral Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWI) and is
executed by the German Space Agency (DLR)
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[1] R. Kulke, G. Moellenbeck et al., RF-Benchmark up to 40 GHz for various
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borne LTCC RF-Modules, IMAPS, Rhode Island, November 2008.
[3] G. Harman, Wire Bonding in Microelectronics Materials, Processes,
Reliability and Yield, McGraw Hill, 1997.
Fig. 11. Insertion loss, i.e. transmission path from central output to all [4] R. Ghaffarian, Reliability of CGA/LGA/HDI Package Board/Assembly,
reflector feed inputs NASA, JPL Publication 12-3 2/12.
[5] T. Klein, C. Guenner et al., Shielded and Robust LTCC BGA-Interconnect
for Satellite Flight Hardware, CICMT, Erfurt, 2012.
[6] M. Schneider et al., Antennas for multiple spot beam satellites, CEAS
Space Journal, 2011.
[7] T. Klein, C. Guenner et al, Multiple Feed per Beam Networks for Ka-
Band Satellite Communication Systems in LTCC technology, International
Microwave Symposium, Baltimore, 2011.
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Components for LTCC Millimeterwave Hybrid Circuits, European Mi-
crowave Week (EUMW) 2007, Munich, Germany, October 2007.
[9] R. Kulke, G. Mllenbeck et al.,LTCC Multi-Chip Modules for Ka-Band
Multimedia Satellite Technology, GEMIC: German Microwave Confer-
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[11] G. Vogt, K.H. Drue et al., Qualification of a compact Ka-band Switch
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[12] J.-P. Sommer, C. Guenner et al, Design of Low Loss Beam Forming
Networks Supported by Numerical Simulations and Material Character-
Fig. 12. Return loss including Mini-SMP connectors isation, ICEPT 2010.

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