Overview

This chapter will give a brief introduction to packaging history and what system in package (SiP) is about. The SiP designer is well rounded and multidisciplined, not only in packaging issues like substrate dielectric parameters, thermal resistance, and design rules for LTCC, laminate, and high-resistivity silicon substrates, but also in radio frequency (RF) circuit design and system architecture design. RF SiP is not just a package but a system, with the functionality previously dedicated to the motherboard level at the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) now provided at the package level [1]. Modularization of the RF blocks has evolved the package from die protection and interconnect to providing a full or partial radio system, which requires a new or higher level of knowledge from the package designer.

All design decisions should be balanced for performance, size, and cost of the complete assembled module package [2]. The best results are achieved when the package criteria are considered in the initial system architecture phase of the product design cycle. This is emphasized by a library of filters, presented in Chapter 7, that were developed because of early involvement in a SiP project, where a discrete bandpass ceramic filter was replaced with an embedded laminate highpass filter. The ceramic filter was too tall for the module height constraints. It also incurred an additional material and assembly cost compared to an embedded laminate approach. The embedded laminate filter did not meet the performance of the ceramic filter at all frequencies, but it did provide...