Title of Invention

"AN INTERCONNECTION DEVICE "

Abstract An RF microcircuit package and interconnection device is disclosed which minimizes impedance mismatch between circuit elements. Multiple signal vie and close proximity ground vies as well as tuned wire bonds arc disclosed.
Full Text Interconnection Device and Method
This application is being filed as a PCT International Patent application in the name of HEI, Inc., a U.S. national corporation, on December 20,2000 (all countries have been designated except the U.S.).
Technical Field
The present invention relates to a "package" for the assembly of microelectronic circuitry and more particularly to methods, techniques and devices for routing and coupling RF signals between discrete components and substrates within the package.
Background
Microcircuit electronic products are typically assembled from individual components assembled into "packages". In practice individual components are "picked" and "placed" on a substrate. Substrates may be flexible polymer films or rigid ceramic pieces. Substrates may have multiple layers of circuit traces with interconnections between layers made in the "Z" direction through vies. Some components can be directly electrically attached to pads on the substrate with solder or adhesive or the like. Other components have connection pads that do not He in the plane of the surface of the substrate. To accommodate the "height" of these pads, a technique such as wire bonding is used to route signals between the pads that lie in different planes.
For example it has been common practice to glue or solder integrated circuits to a ceramic substrate and then to make circuit interconnections with "wire bonds" between pads on the integrated circuit (1C) and a pad on the substrate. The "wire .bond" is a small loop of wire that leaves the pad on the 1C and loops over the edge of the 1C and drops to the surface of the substrate. Wire bonds are rapidly stitched onto the 1C during production and a typical throughput is 5 wire bonds per second. Both vie and wire bonds form acceptable signal paths for the package as long as the signal of interest is "low frequency".
However, wire bonds both attenuate and radiate signals in the low gigahertz range. The wire itself has a parasitic inductance, which becomes a significant circuit element in the gigahertz range. The conventional solutions to reducing the attenuation have included both "wedge" bonding and "ribbon bonding". Both of these techniques are efforts to reduce the: length of the wire and therefore to reduce the inductance of the "wire".

In the wedge technique, the wire is routed at an acute angle off the pads to minimize the total length of the connection. Such connections can be made at a rate of approximately 2-3 bonds per second. Ribbon bonds substitute a flat ribbon wire for the conventional circular cross section wire of wire bonding. The ribbon has a parasitic capacitance, which is large with respect to the inductance, which minimizes attenuation. However successful ribbon wire bonding is critically dependent on component placement. This process is also extremely slow.
A similar signal routing problem arises on the substrate itself. In a multi-layered substrate linear signal traces typically lie close to a ground plane. As a consequence signal paths can be designed with a constant nominal impedance using well known "stripline" techniques for RF signals. However if the signal path departs from the stripline path and passes in the Z direction then the asymmetry creates an impedance mismatch with an associated attenuation and reflection. Ceramic substrates are particularly prone to this problem because they are brittle and additional thickness in the z-axis is required for mechanical strength. The increased thickness and high dielectric constant exacerbates the impedance mismatch problems.
Consequently there is a need for improved interconnection devices and methods for production of high performance high frequency circuitry "packages".
Summary
In contrast to the prior art, the present invention teaches a solution to the impedance mismatch problem within the substrate and at the surface of the substrate. In accordance with one principle of the invention, a capacitor is formed very near the bonding pad of the substrate. This capacitance forms a resonant circuit with the wire bond "wire". This circuit topology behaves like a transmission line with nominal characteristic impedance to couple signals with reduced attenuation and suppression of reflected and radiated energy.
In a second teaching of the invention two or more vie are supplied for the transmission of Z direction RF signals. In operation the mutual capacitance of the parallel vies form a transmission line for the signal. In an alternate form a ground via is placed near the signal via to form a transmission line like connection. These various principles may be used alone or combined to create high performance packages.
Several benefits flow from package construction that incorporates the techniques. Low loss connections allows for repartitioning of RF signal processing elements to achieve lower cost or higher performance. For example, it may be possible to use discrete circuit elements rather than integrated circuit elements in

some instances where the absence of "good" interconnection technology would force the use of lower performance integrated circuit elements. The connection methodology is also tolerant of component placement which implies lower production costs. These techniques also allow the production of high performance RF packages using lower cost conventional production equipment, which implies lower costs as well.
Brief Description of the Drawings
Throughout the several views of the drawings the invention is shown in several illustrative embodiments to depict various aspects and features of the invention wherein:
Fig. 1 is a cross section view of a package using aspects of the invention;
Fig. 2 is a plan view of a package using certain aspects of the invention;
Fig. 3 is a graph showing return loss test results taken for prototype packages;
Fig. 4 is a graph showing insertion loss test results taken for prototype packages; and
Fig. 5 is a graph showing performance of a package using laminate substrates.
Detailed Description
The disclosure is based on performance testing and a brief discussion of the testing methods is offered to clarify the disclosure. In general, a device under test is provided with an RF input port and an RF output port. The amount of radio frequency power injected into the circuit is taken as unity and the amount of power extracted is compared to the applied power to measure an "insertion loss". A low insertion loss corresponds to "better" performance. Reflected energy due to impedance mismatch also contributes to reduced performance. Return loss is a measure of this parameter. Return loss is conventionally measured as a negative number and so a higher value of return loss corresponds to better performance.
The measurements of return loss and insertion loss are functions of frequency and they are usually plotted against frequency. Broadband performance is highly desirable especially for newer digital phone technology where broad bandwidth is available.
Fig. 1 shows a package 30 in cross section. The arrow 9 indicates the Z-axis in this figure. This package includes a substrate 16, which may be ceramic, or polymer and will typically be laminated with several layers of "circuits". For clarity only a one-layer structure is shown as substrate 16. As is typical of microwave practice the lower surface of the substrate is a ground plane 18 formed by a copper

layer on the substrate 16. A single signal trace is developed on this substrate 16 by the transmission line formed by trace 20 and the ground plane 18. For any given substrate material and dielectric constant the proper width of the trace 20 can be easily computed, as is well known in this art. Trace 20 passes under and is bonded to a trace 28 on the lower surface of substrate 24. In a typical construction a ceramic substrate 24 may carry several integrated circuits or other discrete components which are interconnected to a ceramic or polymer laminate substrate 16 to make up a product.
In the construction shown in Fig. I, the substrate 24 has many vias that carry the ground plane to the underside of the integrated circuit 22. A first signal via 14 and a second via 15 (seen in Fig. 2) together form a signal path in the Z direction to take the signal from the transmission line 20 to the bonding area 12 on the upper surface of substrate 24. In contrast to prior art structures the RF signal is split between two vias seen as via 14 and via 15 in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2. The first signal via 14 and the second signal via are positioned near the ground via 17. The two signal vias and the companion ground vias taken together form a constant impedance connection in the Z-axis between the transmission line 20 and the bonding pad 12. It should be apparent that more than one additional ground or signal via can be used to achieve the impedance match characteristic.
In Fig. 1 the wire 10 bond makes the electrical signal path connection from the bonding pad 12 to the port 2 connection to complete the description of the test package 30.
Fig. 2 shows the arrangement of Fig. 1 in plan view. The arrow 11 identifies the X-Y axis for this configuration. The signal from port 1 enters the test package 30 through the transmission line connection formed by trace 20 and the ground pane 18 (not seen). This transmission line 20 is connected to trace 28. The connection trace 28 is shown in phantom view in this figure. This connection trace 28 couples with the first signal via 14 and the second signal via 15. pach via is shown as a circle and the separation between via 14 and via 15 is shown as separation distance 32. The magnitude of this separation distance can be used to "rune" the transmission line characteristics for the signal vias 14 and 15.
On the upper surface of the substrate 24 the bonding pad 12 is shown with an exaggerated width labeled as 36 on Fig. 2. This extended bonding pad has substantial capacitance with respect to the ground planes of substrate 22 and substrate 24. It is the capacitance of the pad that "tunes" the inductance of the wirelO to produce a characteristic design impedance. Although the pad is shown extended in the Y direction forming a "T" shaped connection it should be appreciated that other shapes are possible and potentially more desirable in particular

situations. It is a characteristic of many RF'integrated circuits that the density of interconnections is low and as a consequence the periphery of the die is available for such structures. It is also noted that the T shape takes advantage of the close ground plane a base or lower side of most integrated circuits. The equivalent circuit is a capacitor from the inductance of the wire to ground forming a pass band filter in the signal path.
With respect to the positioning distance 32 of the signal via 15 and the signal via 14, it should be understood that the exact spacing to create the desire characteristic impedance depends on the dielectric constant of the substrates 24 and 16 and the proximity of other ground features. Consequently, more than one signal via may be desirable given a specific package design. The shape and location of the first and second signal vias 14 and 15 should be considered illustrative of the invention rather than limiting. In a similar fashion, the ground via 17 which is a complement of the signal vias 14 and 15 may be positioned to "tune" the connection. No exact relationship exists because of the proximity of other stray capacitance and proximity of other ground structures.
In the various tests, the RF signal is injected into port 1 and extracted from port 2. The power available at port 2 depends on the quality of the various connections between port land port 2 and the tests measure the "return loss" and "insertion loss" between the ports. In general the two topologies shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 were explored on composite test packages and the data is averaged for these tests. The use of Teflon filled ceramic substrates are preferred. It is believed that the increased dielectric constant of such material improves the performance of the techniques of the invention.
Fig. 3 shows the measured return loss of the package as line 26. This performance is compared to a similar package that does not practice the invention labeled 27 in the figure. The -15dB line 29 is taken as the performance limit for comparison purposes. In general if the return loss is above -15dB the signals are so degraded as to render the package unpractical. The package of the invention does not reach the -15dB point until approximately 36-gigahertz. By contrast the conventional technology reaches the -15 dB point at 13 GHz. Thus the package of the invention is capable of higher frequency operation. It is also important to note that the frequency range is very large which is a requirement for broadband operation.
Fig. 4 shows the insertion loss characteristic for the package. The line 33 is taken with the test packages incorporating the invention while line 31 represents the results of the conventional technique. Line 33 lies above line 31 until about the 40 GHz point demonstrating lower insertion loss for the device. It is important to note

that the figure shows that millimeter wavelength packages of the present invention attenuates the out of band noise more than the conventional package. This low insertion loss in the passband coupled with increased attenuation for out of passband energy is especially useful in high performance communication products such as cellular phones and the like.
Fig. 5 shows the result of a test package made with laminate substrates and Teflon filled ceramic material for a substrate. In this figure the package represented by line 35 offers superior performance in the millimeter wavelength range of 50 gigahertz.
Various embodiments of the invention are shown together to make up a high performance RF package. However each concept may be used alone or combined with other techniques without departing from the scope of the invention. It should also be apparent that other modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention.




We claim:
1. An interconnection device for connection between a first pad (port 2) on first
substrate (22) and a second pad (12) on a second substrate (24), comprising:
a wire (10) extending from said first pad (port) to said second pad (12), said wire (10) having an inductance and forming at least a portion of a signal path; characterized in that a capacitor located proximate said first pad (port 2) and arranged to shunt said signal path, said capacitor having a capacitance formed between said first pad (port 2) and a ground plane (18), said capacitance and inductance providing said signal path formed with said wire (10) with desired characteristic impedance over a design bandwidth, wherein said desired characteristic impedance matches and impedance of one or more other portions of said signal path at frequencies within said design bandwidth such as herein described.
2. The interconnection device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said one wire is
bonded to at least one of the first or second pads using a bond selected from the
group consisting essentially of a wedge bond and a ribbon bond.
3. The interconnection device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said capacitor is
formed as an extended area pad.
4. The interconnection device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said wire is selected
from the group consisting of a round cross-section and a rectangular cross section.
5. The interconnection device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said first substrate
(22) and said second substrate (24) are Teflon filled ceramic.
6. The interconnection device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said first substrate (22)
has a dielectric constant, a first side, and a second side, said second side being
oppositely disposed from said first side, said first pad being formed on said first
side of said substrate, and said ground plane (18) formed on said second side of
the substrate, wherein said capacitor is formed by said first pad and said ground
plane (18).
7. The interconnection device as claimed in claim 9, wherein said design bandwidth
having not more than 15db loss for frequencies at or below 36 GHz.
8. The interconnection device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said wire is a ribbon.
9. The interconnection device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said connection
between a first portion of an electrical circuit to a second portion of the electrical
circuit, comprising: a wire (10) providing an electrical path between the first and
second portions of the electrical circuit, the wire forming a portion of a signal
path; and a substrate (22), a bonding pad (port 2) mounted on the substrate, and a
ground (18) positioned proximal to the bonding pad, thereby forming a capacitor,
wherein the wire has a return loss of not more than 15 dB for frequencies at or
above about 36 GHz.
12. An interconnection device for interconnecting is substantially as herein described with accompanying drawings.

Documents:

in-pct-2002-702-del-abstract.pdf

in-pct-2002-702-del-assignment.pdf

in-pct-2002-702-del-claims.pdf

in-pct-2002-702-del-correspondence-others.pdf

in-pct-2002-702-del-correspondence-po.pdf

in-pct-2002-702-del-description (complete).pdf

in-pct-2002-702-del-drawings.pdf

in-pct-2002-702-del-form-1.pdf

in-pct-2002-702-del-form-13.pdf

in-pct-2002-702-del-form-19.pdf

in-pct-2002-702-del-form-2.pdf

in-pct-2002-702-del-form-26.pdf

in-pct-2002-702-del-form-3.pdf

in-pct-2002-702-del-form-5.pdf

in-pct-2002-702-del-pct-101.pdf

in-pct-2002-702-del-pct-210.pdf

in-pct-2002-702-del-pct-304.pdf

in-pct-2002-702-del-pct-401.pdf

in-pct-2002-702-del-pct-402.pdf

in-pct-2002-702-del-pct-409.pdf

in-pct-2002-702-del-pct-416.pdf

in-pct-2002-702-del-petition-137.pdf

in-pct-2002-702-del-petition-138.pdf


Patent Number 221780
Indian Patent Application Number IN/PCT/2002/00702/DEL
PG Journal Number 32/2008
Publication Date 08-Aug-2008
Grant Date 03-Jul-2008
Date of Filing 16-Jul-2002
Name of Patentee HEI, INC.,
Applicant Address 1495, STEIGER LAKE LANE, VICTORIA, MINNESOTA 55386, U.S.A.
Inventors:
# Inventor's Name Inventor's Address
1 HUANG, GUANGHUA 17350 HORIZON TRAIL, PRIOR LAKE, MINNESOTA 55372, U.S.A.
2 CHANDLER, PARKER 4870 MARTINDALE STREET, PRIOR LAKE, MINNESOTA 55372, U.S.A.
PCT International Classification Number H01L 23/66
PCT International Application Number PCT/US00/34805
PCT International Filing date 2000-12-20
PCT Conventions:
# PCT Application Number Date of Convention Priority Country
1 09/477,048 1999-12-31 U.S.A.