RFMW Expert Product Pick: Nuvotronics High-Performance, mmWave Packaging

What made you select the Nuvotronics high-performance mmWave packaging? How are these products different from others on the market?

My June Expert Product Pick is a family of ten products which I believe are going to prove invaluable to those designing high performance mmWave front ends using MMIC devices. Cubic Nuvotronics has recently released a family of game changing, high-performance air cavity packages for MMIC die sizes ranging from 1mm to 5mm square. These packages deliver best-in-class RF and thermal performance and have been optimized from the ground up, for mmWave applications.

What are the key features and specifications of these products?

There are two performance variants of standard package. The first, offers wideband performance from DC to 50 GHz, with less than 3 dB insertion loss and 12 dB return loss. The second operates from 60 to 95 GHz with 0.65 dB insertion loss and 12 dB return loss. Being formed of copper, the entire range offers excellent thermal conductivity, enabling heat removal from the top side of the package, simplifying design criteria.

What are common markets and applications of the PolyStrata® high-performance mmWave packaging?

These products are best suited for the very front end of RF systems, right behind the antenna, such as wireless communications or sensing applications. This is where factors such as loss, linearity and power handling directly affect the ultimate performance of the system. Performance of mmWave MMICs is badly affected by the parasitic effects of traditional packages, meaning that these RF front ends have been stuck utilizing a chip-and-wire approach, which can be much more expensive to implement. By using these packages, customers can retain the performance of die, in a surface mount product, unleashing many benefits such as greater design flexibility, faster assembly times, and increased reliability.