Descripción del proyecto
MOORE'S LAW HAS PACED THE GROWTH OF THE ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY FOR THE LAST 35 YEARS IN THE DIGITAL AREA ENABLING THE SYSTEM ON CHIP (SOC) CONCEPT, HOWEVER, IMPORTANT NEW APPLICATIONS IN HEALTH, TRANSPORT, SECURITY, ENERGY AND COMMUNICATIONS ARE NOT FEASIBLE AS SOC, BUT ACCOMPANIED WITH THE SYSTEM IN PACKAGE (SIP) APPROACH, IN COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, THE TRENDS IN SOFTWARE DEFINED RADIO (SDR) AND COGNITIVE RADIO (CR) DEMAND FOR HIGH-PERFORMANCE RF FRONT-ENDS, ADCS, DIGITAL BACK-ENDS, AND DIGITAL PROCESSING, WHEREAS THE SCALING OF CMOS OFFERS A GOOD SOLUTION FOR THE DIGITAL AND LOW FREQUENCY AMS, THE RF SECTION IS FACING NON-CMOS TECHNOLOGIES WITHIN A SINGLE PACKAGE ABLE TO COPE WITH MULTI-STANDARD SPECIFICATIONS, REPROGRAMMABILITY AND SPECTRUM AWARE, TAKING INTO ACCOUNT THIS FRAMEWORK, ONE OF THE PROMISING SIP KEY-TECHNOLOGY ENABLERS IS THE 3D LOW TEMPERATURE CO-FIRED CERAMICS (LTCC), ITS DRIVEN FORCE IS BASED ON THE EXCELLENT PROPERTIES OF THE MULTILAYERED SUBSTRATE, METALS, ADDITION OF HIGH-K DIELECTRICS, FERROMAGNETIC, AND FERROELECTRIC MATERIALS, MACHINING ABILITY, THERMAL CAPABILITY, AND HETEROGENEOUS INTEGRATION (INCLUDING MEMS DEVICES), HOWEVER, MANY CHALLENGING ISSUES MUST STILL BE FACED UP, MAINLY FROM THE DESIGN POINT OF VIEW, WHICH WILL BE ADDRESSED IN THIS PROJECT, THEREFORE, THE AIM OF THE PROJECT IS TO ESTABLISH A 3D LTCC TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF HIGH-PERFORMANCE ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS, MAINLY FOCUSSING IN THE RF AND MICROWAVE EMBEDDED COMPONENTS AND THEIR DESIGN METHODOLOGIES, FOR ACHIEVING SUCH GOAL, RESEARCH ACTIVITIES MUST BE CARRIED OUT TO CLOSE THE GAP BETWEEN TECHNOLOGY AND DESIGN HAVING IN MIND THE NEXT OBJECTIVES:(1) DEVELOPMENT OF EMBEDDED PASSIVE DEVICES AND BUILDING BLOCKS THAT WILL ALLOW TO ADD MORE FUNCTIONALITY TO THE SUBSTRATE THANKS TO THE 3RD DIMENSION AND THE ADDITION OF COMPATIBLE MATERIALS (HIGH-K, FERROELECTRIC,,,,),(2) DEVELOPMENT OF A DESIGN METHODOLOGY TO ALLOW THE OPTIMIZATION OF THE COMPONENTS, BUILDING BLOCKS, AND SUB-SYSTEM BASED ON SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS, VOLUME AND TECHNOLOGY RESTRICTIONS, PLACEMENT, AND SUBSTRATE FUNCTIONALITY, ALTHOUGH LTCC SUBSTRATES HAVE BEEN USED BEYOND 100GHZ, THE TARGET FREQUENCY RANGE IS LIMITED TO 20GHZ COVERING MOST OF THE ACTUAL COMMUNICATION APPLICATIONS (MOBILE TELEPHONY, WPANS, WLANS, WMANS), ACTUAL DEMONSTRATORS OF THE DEVELOPMENT WILL BE RF BUILDING-BLOCKS FOR SDR AND/OR CR THAT CAN INCLUDE ANTENNA ARRAYS, PROGRAMMABLE FILTERS, LNAS, OR MULTIBAND VCOS, IN ADDITION, THE PLATFORM WILL BE OFFERED TO DESIGN PARTNERS AS AN INDICATOR OF THE ACTUAL LEVEL OF DEVELOPMENT,