Radio-frequency system in package including antenna

• US 8,421,686 B2
• Filed: 07/28/2010
• Issued: 04/16/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Fractus SA
• Original Assignee: Fractus SA
• Inventors: Borja Borau, Carmen, Mumbru Forn, Jose, Soler Castany, Jordi, Anguera Pros, Jaume, Puente Baliarda, Carles
• Primary Examiner(s): Wimer, Michael C
• Application Number:
  US12/845,230
• Publication Number:
  US 20100328185A1
• Time in Patent Office: 993 Days
• Field of Search: 343/700.MS, 343/702, 343/741, 343/793, 343/818, 343/876, 343/895, 343/873, 257/678
• US Class Current: 343/702
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2223/6677 for antenna, e.g. antenna included within housing of semiconductor device
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/05599 Material
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/16225 the item being non-metallic, e.g. insulating substrate with or without metallisation
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/32225 the item being non-metallic, e.g. insulating substrate with or without metallisation
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/45015 being circular
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/45099 Material
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/48091 Arched
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/48227 connecting the wire to a bond pad of the item
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/48265 the item being a discrete passive component
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/48464 the other connecting portion not on the bonding area also being a ball bond, i.e. ball-to-ball
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/49175 Parallel arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/73265 Layer and wire connectors
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/85203 Thermocompression bonding
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/85399 Material
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 23/66 High-frequency adaptations
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 24/48 of an individual wire connector
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 24/49 of a plurality of wire connectors
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 24/73 Means for bonding being of different types provided for in two or more of groups H01L24/10, H01L24/18, H01L24/26, H01L24/34, H01L24/42, H01L24/50, H01L24/63, H01L24/71
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 25/165 Containers
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/00 Indexing scheme for arrangements or methods for connecting or disconnecting semiconductor or solid-state bodies as covered by H01L24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/00012 : Relevant to the scope of the group, the symbol of which is combined with the symbol of this group
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/00014 : the subject-matter covered by the group, the symbol of which is combined with the symbol of this group, being disclosed without further technical details
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/01004 : Beryllium [Be]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/01019 : Potassium [K]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/01078 : Platinum [Pt]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/09701 : Low temperature co-fired ceramic [LTCC]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/14 : Integrated circuits
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/1423 : Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit [MMIC]
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/15311 : being a ball array, e.g. BGA
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/181 : Encapsulation
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/19041 : being a capacitor
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/207 : Diameter ranges
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/30107 : Inductance
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/3011 : Impedance
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/30111 : matching
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/3025 : Electromagnetic shielding
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/22 : by structural association with other equipment or articles
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/2283 : mounted in or on the surface of a semiconductor substrate as a chip-type antenna or integrated with other components into an IC package
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/36 : Structural form of radiating elements, e.g. cone, spiral, umbrella; Particular materials used therewithH01Q1/08, H01Q1/14 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/38 : formed by a conductive layer on an insulating support patch antennas H01Q9/0407; microstrip dipole antennas H01Q9/065; microstrip slot antennas H01Q13/106; transmission line microstrip antennas H01Q13/206; manufacturing reflecting surfaces using insulating material for supporting the reflecting surface H01Q15/142
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 1/40 : Radiating elements coated with or embedded in protective material
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 13/10 : Resonant slot antennas
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 9/045 : with particular feeding means for circular polarisation H01Q9/0428
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 9/26 : with folded element or elements, the folded parts being spaced apart a small fraction of operating wavelength resonant loop antennas H01Q7/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 9/30 : with feed to end of elongated active element, e.g. unipole H01Q9/44 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 9/40 : Element having extended radiating surface
• CPC Class Codes: H01Q 9/42 : with folded element, the folded parts being spaced apart a small fraction of the operating wavelength

Abstract

A system comprising at least one antenna and a circuit, wherein the circuit is at least in part not a semiconductor chip or a die. The at least one antenna and the circuit are arranged on a package. Alternatively described is a system comprising at least one antenna and at least one circuit, wherein the at least one antenna and the at least one circuit are arranged on a package, wherein the at least one circuit performs a radio-frequency and optionally a base-band and/or a digital functionality.

Claims

1. An integrated circuit, comprising:

a package housing;

a planar substrate arranged inside the package housing, the planar substrate having an antenna section and a circuit section disposed between a feeding means and the antenna section;

a conducting ground plane arranged inside the package housing;

an antenna element arranged inside the package housing and disposed on the antenna section of the planar substrate;

an electrical circuit arranged inside the package housing and disposed on the circuit section of the planar substrate, the electrical circuit operatively coupled to the antenna element and to the conducting ground plane;

the antenna element forming a segmented curve that comprises at least five segments, each of the at least five segments forms an angle smaller than 180 degrees with each adjacent segment in the segmented curve and at least one angle is smaller than 90 degrees;

at least two angles, which are on the same side of the segmented curve and are formed from adjacent segments of a group of said at least five segments are different; and

at least a 50% of a projection area of the antenna element onto the plane containing the conducting ground plane does not overlap said conducting ground plane.

2. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the electrical circuit is operatively coupled to the antenna by means of a connection internal to the integrated circuit.

3. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein at least three of the segments are shorter than one-tenth of longest free-space operating wavelength of the antenna.

4. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the antenna section is a rectangular area having a longest side shorter than one-fifth of a longest free-space operating wavelength of the antenna.

5. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the electrical circuit comprises a radio-frequency circuit.

6. The integrated circuit of claim 5, wherein the radio-frequency circuit is operatively coupled to the antenna via reactive coupling.

7. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the conducting ground plane is not located under the projection area of the antenna onto the plane containing the conducting ground plane.

8. The integrated circuit of claim 1, further comprises a control pin on the exterior surface of the integrated circuit for coupling the electrical circuit to an external radio-frequency component.

9. The integrated circuit of claim 8, wherein at least one of the electrical circuit and the external radio-frequency component includes at least one filter.

10. The integrated circuit of claim 8, wherein the antenna element is coupled to the external radio-frequency component, so that the electrical circuit is operatively coupled to the antenna through the external radio-frequency component.

11. The integrated circuit of claim 8, wherein the external radio-frequency component is at least one of a matching network, a bypass, a through connection, a power amplifier, a low noise amplifier, a filter, a diplexer, a local oscillator, a modulator/demodulator, a mixer, a detector, a phase shifter, and a balun.

12. The integrated circuit of claim 8, wherein the external radio-frequency component comprises an external antenna and the integrated circuit comprises a switch for selectively coupling the antenna and the external antenna to the electrical circuit.

13. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the antenna is a space-filling antenna featuring a box counting dimension larger than 1.

14. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the antenna is a modular or discrete component.

15. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the antenna is a balanced antenna.

16. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the antenna is an un-balanced antenna.

17. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the antenna element comprises at least one end not connected to the electrical circuit.

18. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the electrical circuit is at least in part not a silicon chip or a die.

19. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the antenna element comprises two or more radiating arms.

20. The integrated circuit of claim 19, wherein the antenna element comprises at least two ends not connected to the electrical circuit.

21. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the antenna element is capable of operating in at least one frequency band allocating one of the following mobile communication and wireless connectivity services:

GSM (GSM850, GSM900, GSM1800, American GSM or PCS1900, GSM450), UMTS, LTE, WCDMA, CDMA, Bluetooth™

, IEEE802.11ba, IEEE802.11b, IEEE802.11g, WLAN, WiFi, UWB, ZigBee, GPS, Galileo, SDARs, XDARS, WiMAX, DAB, FM, DMB, DVB-H.

22. The integrated circuit of claim 1, wherein the electrical circuit is a matching network.

23. The integrated circuit of claim 22, wherein the antenna element is not resonant when disconnected from the matching network in at least one frequency band of operation.

24. An integrated circuit package, comprising:

a substrate;

an antenna formed on the substrate;

a conducting ground plane disposed on the substrate;

a circuit disposed on the substrate at a location outside an area occupied by the antenna, the circuit being coupled to the antenna element and to the conducting ground plane;

a control pin external to the integrated circuit package and coupled to the circuit to control the circuit and antenna functions to selectively engage a multiple antenna functionality;

the antenna comprising a plurality of conducting segments that form a curve, each of the plurality of conducting segments forms an angle smaller than 180 degrees with each adjacent segment in the curve and at least one angle is smaller than 90 degrees;

at least two angles, which are on the same side of the curve and are formed from adjacent segments of a group of said plurality of conducting segments are different; and

at least a 50% of a projection area of the antenna onto the plane containing the conducting ground plane does not overlap said conducting ground plane.

25. The integrated circuit package of claim 24, wherein at least three of the segments are shorter than one-tenth of longest free-space operating wavelength of the antenna.

26. The integrated circuit package of claim 24, wherein the antenna is a space-filling antenna featuring a box counting dimension larger than 1.

27. The integrated circuit package of claim 24, wherein the antenna is formed in a rectangular area having a longest side shorter than one-fifth of a longest free-space operating wavelength of the antenna.

28. The integrated circuit package of claim 24, wherein the multiple antenna functionality is at least one of multiple-input multiple-output system, smart antenna system, phased array system, sensor network, diversity system.

29. The integrated circuit of claim 24, wherein the segmented curve is a non-periodic curve.

30. The integrated circuit of claim 24, wherein the curve is a non-periodic curve.

31. The integrated circuit of claim 24 wherein the circuit is at least in part not a silicon chip or a die.

32. The integrated circuit of claim 24, wherein the antenna comprises at least one end not connected to the electrical circuit.

33. The integrated circuit of claim 24 wherein the substrate presents a dielectric constant lower than 10.

34. The integrated circuit package of claim 24, wherein the antenna comprises two or more radiating arms.

35. The integrated circuit of claim 24, wherein the circuit is a matching network.

36. The integrated circuit of claim 35, wherein the antenna is not resonant when disconnected from the matching network in at least one frequency band of operation.

40. The device of claim 24, wherein the consumer electronic device is selected from a group consisting of a cellular phone, a mobile phone, a smart phone, a satellite phone, a multimedia terminal, personal digital assistant (PDA), a portable music player, a radio, a digital camera, a USB dongle, a wireless headset, a PCMCIA card, a personal computer, a Notebook, a pocket PC, and a tablet.

37. A communication system, comprising:

a controller; and

a plurality of integrated circuit packages, each integrated circuit package comprising;

a package housing;

a conducting ground plane arranged inside the package housing;

an antenna element arranged inside the package housing;

an electrical circuit arranged inside the package housing, the electrical circuit being coupled to the antenna element, the conducting ground plane and controller, and comprising circuitry to perform a signal processing operation on a communication signal provided by or to the antenna element;

the antenna being formed by a plurality of conducting segments that form a curve, each of the plurality of conducting segments forms an angle smaller than 180 degrees with each adjacent segment in the curve and at least one angle is smaller than 90 degrees;

at least two angles, which are on the same side of the curve and are formed from adjacent segments of a group of said plurality of conducting segments are different;

at least a 50% of a projection area of the antenna element onto the plane containing the conducting ground plane does not overlap said conducting ground plane; and

the controller provides control signals to each integrated circuit package to selectively operate the plurality of integrated circuit packages in a multiple antenna communication system technique.

38. The communication system of claim 37, wherein the multiple antenna communication system technique is at least one of multiple-input multiple-output system, smart antenna system, phased array system, sensor network, and diversity system.

39. A consumer electronic device, comprising:

a printed circuit board comprising a ground plane layer, the printed circuit board having a processor section and an RF processing circuit section;

a processor mounted on the processor section;

an RF processing circuit mounted on the RF processing circuit section, provided in communication with the processor, the RF processing circuit comprising an antenna and an integrated circuit provided inside a common package, wherein;

the antenna is provided on a planar substrate of the common package in a multi-segment, folded curve configuration that includes at least five segments, each of the at least five segments forms an angle smaller than 180 degrees with each adjacent segment in the segmented curve and at least one angle is smaller than 90 degrees;

at least two angles, which are on the same side of the segmented curve and are formed from adjacent segments of a group of said at least five segments are different;

the substrate has non-conducting material provided under at least 50% of a projection area of the antenna;

the integrated circuit is provided on the planar package substrate outside a projection area of the antenna and coupled to the antenna;

no metallization of the ground plane layer is provided under at least 50% of the projection area of the antenna onto the plane containing the ground plane layer; and

the processor is external to the common package.

41. The device of claim 39, wherein the antenna is a multi-band antenna.

42. The device of claim 39, wherein the antenna element is capable of operating in at least one frequency band allocating one of the following mobile communication and wireless connectivity services:

GSM (GSM850, GSM900, GSM1800, American GSM or PCS1900, GSM450), UMTS, LTE, WCDMA, CDMA, Bluetooth™

, IEEE802.11ba, IEEE802.11b, IEEE802.11g, WLAN, WiFi, UWB, ZigBee, GPS, Galileo, SDARs, XDARS, WiMAX, DAB, FM, DMB, DVB-H.

43. The device of claim 39, wherein a control pin is coupled to the integrated circuit and to the antenna to control the antenna functions to selectively engage a multiple antenna functionality selected from a group consisting of a smart antenna system, a phased array system, a sensor network, and a diversity system.