RJR Technologies Inc of Oakland, CA, USA, a developer and high-volume manufacturer of air-cavity plastic (ACP) semiconductor packaging for RF and microwave markets, has shipped over 10 million ACP packages, reflecting the increasing use of plastic packages in high-performance, high-frequency RF applications.
"Base-station manufacturers in today's highly competitive wireless infrastructure market are constantly seeking solutions that support higher linearity, higher average output power, and wider operating bandwidths while driving down costs," says president & CEO Wil Salhuana. "With our rising volumes of shipments, semiconductor manufacturers clearly recognize that ACP packages offer a compelling combination of high performance, low cost and faster time-to-market over traditional ACC [air-cavity ceramic] packages," he adds.
Based on RJR's patented injection-molded liquid-crystal polymer (LCP) packaging technology, ACP packages feature an air-cavity structure similar to a ceramic package to maximize electrical isolation of the silicon die. These packages employ an insert-injection molding process that combines a metal alloy lead frame with a LCP sidewall and matching lid with a pre-applied B-staged epoxy. The use of a lower-temperature, compliant epoxy makes the package independent of the flange, allowing manufacturers to use a wide variety of base/flange materials to meet specific CTE (coefficient of thermal expansion) matching and thermal management requirements. As a result, ACP is the only packaging technology that allows designers to use lower-cost, higher-conductivity copper bases, the firm says.
"By reducing thermal resistance and parasitic effects, our packaging supports higher levels of performance than existing ceramic packages while delivering the low cost and shorter development cycle of a plastic package," says Salhuana. "Manufacturers that simply replace ceramic packages featuring an expensive composite-type metal base with our ACP2 with a copper base can reduce the packaging costs of RF power transistors by as much as 50% while improving thermal dissipation by 30%," he claims.
RJR has also begun to offer industry-standard QFN packages using its LCP technology. "Our industry-standard plastic packages promise to deliver similar benefits over the next few years to system developers in the gallium nitride (GaN) market and in emerging applications such as automotive ignition systems, lighting and consumer microwave appliances," notes Salhuana.
RJR is displaying its RF and microwave packaging technology in booth number 2146 at the IEEE International Microwave Symposium (IMS2016) in San Francisco (22–27 May).
