A 3D coaxial transition with continuous ground wall fabricated by a 12-inch wafer-level packaging method for radio frequency applications

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to realize the vertical interconnection in 3D radio frequency (RF) circuit by coaxial transitions with broad working bandwidth and small signal loss. Design/methodology/approach An advanced packaging method, 12-inch wafer-level through-mold-via (TMV) additive manufacturing, is used to fabricate a 3D resin-based coaxial transition with a continuous ground wall (named resin-coaxial transition). Designation and simulation are implemented to ensure the application universality and fabrication feasibility. The outer radius R of coaxial transition is optimized by designing and fabricating three samples. Findings The fabricated coaxial transition possesses an inner radius of 40 µm and a length of 200 µm. The optimized sample with an outer radius R of 155 µm exhibits S11 < –10 dB and S21 > –1.3 dB at 10–110 GHz and the smallest insertion loss (S21 = 0.83 dB at 77 GHz) among the samples. Moreover, the S21 of the samples increases at 58.4–90.1 GHz, indicating a broad and suitable working bandwidth. Originality/value The wafer-level TMV additive manufacturing method is applied to fabricate coaxial transitions for the first time. The fabricated resin-coaxial transitions show good performance up to the W-band. It may provide new strategies for novel designing and fabricating methods of RF transitions.