Antenna integrated in a package substrate

#Embodiments described herein generally relate to an antenna, and in particular an antenna integrated in a package substrate, a wireless handheld device comprising such an antenna, and a method of manufacturing such an antenna.

#Higher frequency applications operate in the millimeter-wave frequency range of 30 GHz to 300 GHz, and may provide wireless communications at unidirectional data rates exceeding 2.0 Gigabytes per link. Examples of these applications include Wireless Display (WiDi), wireless docking, wireless probes for post-silicon validation, and wireless chip-to-chip communications within and between platforms.

#For these applications, several antenna structures small enough to fit within a package substrate of a wireless die have been proposed. In order to achieve a desired bandwidth, many of these antenna structures require several package build-up layers formed using expensive fabrication technology, such as low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC), or must be placed inside an air cavity within the package, leading to fabrication and reliability problems. Standard packages require thin build-up layers to enable thin vias (via aspect ratio should be close to one) and dense interconnects. However, this requirement conflicts with a requirement for thick, almost evenly spaced layers needed to obtain wide-band, high-efficiency, multi-layer antenna designs, such as stacked patch antennas. One solution to overcome these conflicting requirements is to implement several thin layers to enable small vias and at the same time obtain an overall thickness large enough for wide-band antenna designs. This solution, however, leads to an increase in package cost and reduction in yield. Also, the resulting ultra-thick packages conflict with a goal for achieving ultra-thin portable devices, such as tablets, smartphones and wearable computing devices.

#FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate a schematic diagram of an antenna in accordance with an exemplary embodiment.

#FIGS. 2A-2C illustrate top views of coupling elements in accordance with exemplary embodiments.

#FIG. 3 is a graph illustrating performance of three antennas.

#The present disclosure is directed to an antenna integrated in a package substrate, the antenna comprising an upper antenna element, a lower antenna element, and a coupling element disposed between the upper antenna element and the lower antenna element. The coupling element comprises an aperture and is configured to provide a coupling between the upper antenna element and the lower antenna element.

#FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate a schematic diagram of an antenna in accordance with an exemplary embodiment. FIG. 1A illustrates a cross-sectional view of antenna 100A, and FIG. 1B illustrates a top view of antenna 100B.

#A standard two-layer stacked patch antenna operates based on a coupling between two patches, a direct fed patch and a coupled patch. These patches generate two resonances that can be brought close together in frequency to achieve wideband operation compared to a single layer patch antenna. This stacked patch antenna is generally disposed on a multilayer organic or inorganic package substrate. At millimeter wave frequencies, the substrate material may be a low loss material such as low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) or liquid crystal polymer (LCP) substrate and may have, for example, a 50-100-50 um build-up. These build-up dimensions apply for the LCP designed for operation at 57-66 GHz. It will be appreciated that in the same frequency range, the layer thicknesses for LTCC would be greater because LTCC has higher dielectric constant.