GB2458656A - Compact integrated circuit antenna - Google Patents

Compact integrated circuit antenna Download PDF

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Publication number
GB2458656A
GB2458656A GB0805438A GB0805438A GB2458656A GB 2458656 A GB2458656 A GB 2458656A GB 0805438 A GB0805438 A GB 0805438A GB 0805438 A GB0805438 A GB 0805438A GB 2458656 A GB2458656 A GB 2458656A
Authority
GB
United Kingdom
Prior art keywords
antenna
antenna according
package
type
planar
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
GB0805438A
Other versions
GB0805438D0 (en
Inventor
Jonathan Gregory Leckey
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Individual
Original Assignee
Individual
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Individual filed Critical Individual
Priority to GB0805438A priority Critical patent/GB2458656A/en
Publication of GB0805438D0 publication Critical patent/GB0805438D0/en
Publication of GB2458656A publication Critical patent/GB2458656A/en
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

Links

Classifications

    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
    • H01Q23/00—Antennas with active circuits or circuit elements integrated within them or attached to them
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
    • H01Q1/00—Details of, or arrangements associated with, antennas
    • H01Q1/12—Supports; Mounting means
    • H01Q1/22—Supports; Mounting means by structural association with other equipment or articles
    • H01Q1/2283—Supports; Mounting means by structural association with other equipment or articles mounted in or on the surface of a semiconductor substrate as a chip-type antenna or integrated with other components into an IC package
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01Q—ANTENNAS, i.e. RADIO AERIALS
    • H01Q9/00—Electrically-short antennas having dimensions not more than twice the operating wavelength and consisting of conductive active radiating elements
    • H01Q9/04—Resonant antennas
    • H01Q9/0407—Substantially flat resonant element parallel to ground plane, e.g. patch antenna
    • H01Q9/0421—Substantially flat resonant element parallel to ground plane, e.g. patch antenna with a shorting wall or a shorting pin at one end of the element
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L2224/00—Indexing scheme for arrangements for connecting or disconnecting semiconductor or solid-state bodies and methods related thereto as covered by H01L24/00
    • H01L2224/01—Means for bonding being attached to, or being formed on, the surface to be connected, e.g. chip-to-package, die-attach, "first-level" interconnects; Manufacturing methods related thereto
    • H01L2224/42—Wire connectors; Manufacturing methods related thereto
    • H01L2224/47—Structure, shape, material or disposition of the wire connectors after the connecting process
    • H01L2224/48—Structure, shape, material or disposition of the wire connectors after the connecting process of an individual wire connector
    • H01L2224/481—Disposition
    • H01L2224/48151—Connecting between a semiconductor or solid-state body and an item not being a semiconductor or solid-state body, e.g. chip-to-substrate, chip-to-passive
    • H01L2224/48221—Connecting between a semiconductor or solid-state body and an item not being a semiconductor or solid-state body, e.g. chip-to-substrate, chip-to-passive the body and the item being stacked
    • H01L2224/48245—Connecting between a semiconductor or solid-state body and an item not being a semiconductor or solid-state body, e.g. chip-to-substrate, chip-to-passive the body and the item being stacked the item being metallic
    • H01L2224/48247—Connecting between a semiconductor or solid-state body and an item not being a semiconductor or solid-state body, e.g. chip-to-substrate, chip-to-passive the body and the item being stacked the item being metallic connecting the wire to a bond pad of the item
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L2924/00—Indexing scheme for arrangements or methods for connecting or disconnecting semiconductor or solid-state bodies as covered by H01L24/00
    • H01L2924/19—Details of hybrid assemblies other than the semiconductor or other solid state devices to be connected
    • H01L2924/191—Disposition
    • H01L2924/19101—Disposition of discrete passive components
    • H01L2924/19107—Disposition of discrete passive components off-chip wires

Abstract

An antenna comprises a plurality of planar elements 8 where adjacent elements 8 are interconnected by inductive wire or ribbon elements 6. The antenna may be embodied in a lead-frame based package with an organic or ceramic substrate involving BGA, LGA or module technology. The package may be enclosed by a dielectric material or covered by a dielectric lid. The package may involve a semiconductor die 7, die paddle 5 and leads 1. The antenna may have a ground structure with periodic gaps bridged by bond wires. The antenna may be a monopole, dipole, loop, inverted-F or Yagi type antenna which may involve spiral, folded or zig-zag type patterns. Multiple layer conductive elements may be interconnected to obtain the desired inductive and capacitive operational characteristics. The antenna may have a rectangular, circular, elliptical or polygonal conductive plate or some other form of repeated conductive pattern. The use of inductive and capacitive interconnections and formations may provide a compact antenna with appropriate impedance matching and/or frequency filtering characteristics.

Description

Compact Antenna for a Wireless Device This invention relates to an antenna that is both compact and suitable for fabrication by plastic molded Integrated Circuit (IC) package manufacturing processes. The development of wireless enabled personal devices requires such antennas with progressively smaller dimensions, and which retain high levels of electrical performance and low manufacturing cost.
It is known to those skilled in the art that ceramic materials possessing high dielectric permittivity may be used to create small volume antennas. However, due to the temperatures and pressures required in forming such ceramic materials, the processes are not compatible with the encapsulation of relatively fragile integrated circuits and associated interconnecting bond wires.
Epoxy resin based IC package molding compounds on the other hand, consist of organic polymers and fillers which set at relatively low temperature and pressure. However such organic molding compounds exhibit relatively low dielectric constants and thus impose a significant limitation on the smallest achievable size of antennas formed for example using the prior state of the art molded leadframe approach as in figure 3. With the prior state of the art planar package antenna there is also a limited ability to control the antenna characteristics of frequency response, gain, impedance and radiation patterns mainly due to the metal leadframe geometries which can be readily achieved. It is also recognised that molded IC packages enable lower unit production cost than ceramic based components of equivalent volume.
To overcome these limitations the present invention, as shown in figure 1, proposes a more compact antenna structure which is compatible with IC packaging and molding encapsulation methods. Rather than utilising a single continuous antenna paddle, the inventive antenna consists of multiple sub-sections 8 separated by gaps, across which are connected a number of wire bonds 6, ribbons or other inductive elements. The main planar radiating structure is thus divided into sections, between which the wire bonds add specific amounts of electrical inductance which may be distributed along the length of the antenna. Other leads 1 may be added to retain footprint compatibility or add extra fixing points to the motherboard to which the antenna package is attached.
The added inductance values as determined by bond wire numbers, loop heights and lengths are distributed uniformly or otherwise along the antenna at intervals depending on the required antenna electrical behaviour.
The primary effect of adding the distributed inductance is to increase the electrical length of the antenna thereby reducing its physical size for a given frequency.
Thus a compact antenna may be formed in a method compatible with IC package encapsulation. Also by setting inductance values, along with the number and dimensions of each paddle section and their distances along the radiating paddle, the antenna characteristics such as radiation pattern, bandwidth, input impedance and gain and phase response with frequency may be modified.
Utilising wire bond inductances in this way in combination with a sectioning of the paddle allows extra degrees of freedom for the design of the desired compact antenna.
The present compact antenna structure offers the following advantages, while retaining compatibility with IC package manufacturing materials and methods; It permits a smaller physical size over a conventional planar antenna for a given frequency band of operation.
It enables a higher degree of freedom in control of the electrical length of the antenna along its length, and thus the frequency response and radiation pattern of the antenna.
It enables variable electrical length along antenna leading to controlled dual band frequency operation.
It enables control of the filtering behaviour of the antenna to assist in rejection of unwanted signals at specific frequencies.
It also enables an artificial transmission line structure to be fabricated with a number of inductive and capacitive sections.
The invention will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 shows a linear planar type antenna within a leadframe package Figure 2 shows the side view of the linear antenna Figure 3 shows a prior art leadframe paddle antenna Figure 4 shows a single turn planar spiral antenna Figure 5 shows a rectangular patch type antenna Figure 6 shows a ioop type antenna Figure 7 shows a meander or zigzag type antenna The invention shown in figure 1 relates to a compact antenna structure incorporated within a molded leadframe based package. This basic embodiment contains an etched planar paddle forming the main radiating element of a monopole antenna and that is divided into separate sections (8) which are inductively coupled to each other by bond wires (6) or ribbons which add a controlled inductance, distributed along the length of the antenna either in fixed or varying proprrtion. A primary and desirable effect of this configuration is an increase in the effective electrical length of the structure which results in a smaller physical antenna for a given frequency of operation. The package also contains elements such as semiconductor die 7, die paddle 5, and leads 1 for external connection and attachment. Prior art examples such as that of figure 3 have shown wire bonds used to connect the antenna to a pad or secondary structure, however they are confined to interconnection between the antenna and the secondary structure e.g. an external lead or IC chip. The present invention utilises the wire bond or inductive elements at gaps introduced along the length of the antenna Structure thus permitting the antenna to be relatively compact in length for a given frequency. It also assists in setting the antenna behaviour with frequency to enable dual or multiple frequencies of operation for example at wireless bands around 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz. The frequencies of transmission are set by adjusting the relative values of the inductive elements and dimensions of the planar antenna sections.
The antenna structure is suitable for implementation within various leadframe based IC package types including QFN, DFN, DIL and SOP molded packages. The leadframe antenna package is assembled as a matrix of components within a larger frame. The typical sequence of assembly is to construct the leadframe, apply tape to the bottom side, attach semiconductor die if appropriate, add bond wires to the antenna and die pads, mold over the matrix of components in a transfer mold process, add marking and metal plating and finally to singulate the individual packages using sawing or punching.
One embodiment is that of a single turn planar spiral antenna as in Figure 4.
A further embodiment is that of a patch type antenna which may be of rectangular shape as in Figure 5, with subdivided patch 8 and added bondwire inductances 6.
A further embodiment is that of a planar ioop antenna as in Figure 6.
A further embodiment is the configuration applied to wideband and ultra wideband antennas with elliptical or circular patch shape.
A further embodiment of the inventive.ntenna configuration is that of the planar conductor on a laminated printed circuit board or ceramic substrate with the planar sections connected by inductive bondwires.
A further embodiment is the configuration applied to dipole type antennas. Both arms of the dipole are symmetric and contain the distributed inductance elements.
Further embodiments of the inventive antenna are with the planar pattern of folded type, L shaped, inverted F, zigzag as figure 7, polygonal, elliptical plate, circular plate, fractal based or of multiple repeated pattern.
A further embodiment of the inventive antenna is in packages of the etched/printed metal pattern on dielectric substrate type such as BGA, LGA, laminate module, multilayer module, LTCC module.
In a further embodiment the present antenna is covered by a lid of dielectric material.
A further embodiment uses the inventive antenna bondwire effects in conjunction with capacitive dielectric enclosure of the antenna and wire elements. By balancing inductive and capacitive loading of the antenna further means of control is enabled for setting parameters including electrical length, impedance, bandwidth, radiation pattern and frequency response.
In a further embodiment the inventive antenna is placed on a motherboard close to or overlapping a ground plane structure to enhance its radiation efficiency.
In a further embodiment a planar conductive ground pattern forms part of the antenna radiating structure.
In a further embodiment wires are added to adjacent ground structures within the antenna package and increase the electrical length of the antenna further.
In a further embodiment the inventive antenna is implemented on a semiconductor die.

Claims (17)

  1. Claims 1. An antenna that consists of a plurality of planar sections, wherein each section of the antenna is connected to an adjacent section by inductive wires, bond wires or ribbons.
  2. 2. An antenna according to 1 which is embodied in a leadframe based package.
  3. 3. An antenna according to 1 which is formed on an organic or ceramic based substrate based packaging technology such as BGA, LGA or module.
  4. 4. A ground structure forming part of the antenna according to 1 also with periodic gaps connected by bond wi res.
  5. 5. The antenna package according to 1 which includes a planar die paddle connected to the antenna by bond wires.
  6. 6. The antenna package according to 1 which is enclosed by a dielectric material.
  7. 7. The antenna package according to 1 which is covered by a dielectric lid.
  8. 8. The antenna according to 1 wherein the antenna is of a rnonopole type.
  9. 9. The antenna according to 1 wherein the antenna is of a dipole type having two branches.
  10. 10. The antenna according to 1 wherein the antenna is of a folded monopole type.
  11. 11. The antenna according to 1 wherein the antenna is of a planar spiral monopole type.
  12. 12. The antenna according to 1 wherein the antenna is of a zigzag monopole type.
  13. 13. The antenna according to 1 wherein the antenna is formed on multiple layers which are inductively or capacitively interconnected.
  14. 14. The antenna according to 1 wherein the antenna is of a planar polygon.
  15. 15. The antenna according to 1 wherein the antenna is of a elliptical type.
  16. 16. The antenna according to 1 wherein the antenna is of a hybrid polygonal elliptical type.
  17. 17. The antenna according to 1 which is of yagi type having additional parasitic elements for gain enhancement.19. The antenna according to 1 which is integrated as part of a larger circuit board with additional transceiver functions.20. The antenna according to 1 placed on motherboard close to or overlapping a ground plane structure.
GB0805438A 2008-03-26 2008-03-26 Compact integrated circuit antenna Withdrawn GB2458656A (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB0805438A GB2458656A (en) 2008-03-26 2008-03-26 Compact integrated circuit antenna

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
GB0805438A GB2458656A (en) 2008-03-26 2008-03-26 Compact integrated circuit antenna

Publications (2)

Publication Number Publication Date
GB0805438D0 GB0805438D0 (en) 2008-04-30
GB2458656A true GB2458656A (en) 2009-09-30

Family

ID=39386732

Family Applications (1)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
GB0805438A Withdrawn GB2458656A (en) 2008-03-26 2008-03-26 Compact integrated circuit antenna

Country Status (1)

Country Link
GB (1) GB2458656A (en)

Cited By (3)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
CN104900989A (en) * 2015-06-09 2015-09-09 联想(北京)有限公司 Electronic equipment and protective housing
EP2940786A4 (en) * 2012-12-28 2016-01-20 Zte Corp Land grid array module and device
WO2019197916A1 (en) * 2018-04-13 2019-10-17 International Business Machines Corporation Integrated antenna array packaging structures and methods

Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5886393A (en) * 1997-11-07 1999-03-23 National Semiconductor Corporation Bonding wire inductor for use in an integrated circuit package and method
EP1126522A1 (en) * 2000-02-18 2001-08-22 Alcatel Packaged integrated circuit with radio frequency antenna
US6396137B1 (en) * 2000-03-15 2002-05-28 Kevin Mark Klughart Integrated voltage/current/power regulator/switch system and method
US6586309B1 (en) * 2000-04-24 2003-07-01 Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. High performance RF inductors and transformers using bonding technique

Patent Citations (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US5886393A (en) * 1997-11-07 1999-03-23 National Semiconductor Corporation Bonding wire inductor for use in an integrated circuit package and method
EP1126522A1 (en) * 2000-02-18 2001-08-22 Alcatel Packaged integrated circuit with radio frequency antenna
US6396137B1 (en) * 2000-03-15 2002-05-28 Kevin Mark Klughart Integrated voltage/current/power regulator/switch system and method
US6586309B1 (en) * 2000-04-24 2003-07-01 Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd. High performance RF inductors and transformers using bonding technique

Cited By (7)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
EP2940786A4 (en) * 2012-12-28 2016-01-20 Zte Corp Land grid array module and device
CN104900989A (en) * 2015-06-09 2015-09-09 联想(北京)有限公司 Electronic equipment and protective housing
CN104900989B (en) * 2015-06-09 2017-12-29 联想(北京)有限公司 Electronic equipment and containment vessel
WO2019197916A1 (en) * 2018-04-13 2019-10-17 International Business Machines Corporation Integrated antenna array packaging structures and methods
GB2587106A (en) * 2018-04-13 2021-03-17 Ibm Integrated antenna array packaging structures and methods
US11189905B2 (en) 2018-04-13 2021-11-30 International Business Machines Corporation Integrated antenna array packaging structures and methods
GB2587106B (en) * 2018-04-13 2022-05-18 Ibm Integrated antenna array packaging structures and methods

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
GB0805438D0 (en) 2008-04-30

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