Thin Film Embedded Passives for Microwave and Millimeter Wave Applications

Integration of passive components has become a major objective in the further evolution of portable communications systems. In this paper, our microwave thin-film technology is discussed as a credible candidate for the realisation of fully integrated microwave front-end modules and systems. Due to the high quality dielectrics and copper metal-lization, various high quality passive microwave components are available. This, together with the integrated passives design library containing fully scaleable equivalent models for the inductors, capacitors, resistors, transmission lines and discontinuities, allows easy and accurate design. Using this technology and design approach numerous microwave circuits have been successfully realised. Examples of filters, a VCO, a receiver function, a QPSK modulator and a Ka band receiver module are discussed.