Chair: Robert Eichner, Keysight Technologies

The number of mm-Wave applications, in particular within 5G and Automotive Radar, is growing rapidly. While this brings various benefits like extremely low latency and very high bandwidth, it also brings big challenges for the semiconductor industry in designing the RF chips. The level of integration of RF and mm-wave systems is increasing and this has an impact on the electrical properties and system parameters. It is insufficient to model chip, package and PCB separately, as some high-frequency effects may not be captured, as electromagnetic coupling between integrated coils on chip and routing traces in the package. Electromagnetic simulation is used for signal integrity, parasitic extraction and antenna radiation performance. At frequencies around 24, 60 or 77 GHz, EM simulation is a must have and schematic-only simulations becoming meaningless.

The seminar will cover technology trends and applications for mm-Wave applications. You will learn why co-design of Chip-Package-Board interfaces is mandatory at mm-Wave frequencies. We will show the results of the collaboration between GlobalFoundries, Fraunhofer and Keysight to provide a qualified reference flow for advanced system integration. It is crucial to go beyond the IC for mm-Wave applications and this requires a complete Assembly Design Kit (ADK) beyond the typical Process Design Kit (PDK). We present and demonstrate a complete chip-package co-design flow, which allows improvement of RF performance and power efficiency. By designing concurrently, silicon, package and system can be optimized and validated with fewer iterations before tape-out. The flow has been validated on GlobalFoundries’ 22FDX process which targets mm-Wave designs.

The session is divided in two presentations / demonstrations:

• Application Design Kit (ADK) – why it’s crucial to go beyond the IC for mm-Wave applications, Saquib Bin Halim, GlobalFoundries
• Wafer-level Package reference flow for analyzing on-chip and off-chip RF impairments, Alexander Kravets, Keysight Technologies