Technical Insight
Endwave awarded three flip-chip patents (GaAs News)
Endwave, a supplier of RF modules, integrated transceivers, antennas and outdoor units, has received three new US patents for its flip-chip IC technology, bringing the company s total number of patents up to 23. Flip-chip designs minimize the use of resistors, capacitors, inductors, couplers, filters and vias and their associated parasitics that can degrade IC performance. Flip-chip designs are also frequency-independent, allowing the same part to be used for a variety of frequency bands. The new patents cover several aspects of flip-chip design, including slotline-to-slotline mounted flip-chip technology for millimeter wave circuits. This eliminates the need for expensive ground connections through the substrate. Another patented feature is a coplanar band pass filter that requires no tuning, which thus saves manufacturing/testing time. Finally, the patents include a self-biasing RF amplifier bias that connects coplanar waveguide circuits and eliminates the need for a negative bias. "These inventions provide Endwave and its customers a unique path to low-cost, high-volume manufacturing of ultra-broadband wireless radios. Flip-chip technology enables us to reduce the size of the GaAs chips, the most expensive component of millimeter-wave radios, by a factor of 5 to 10," said CTO Cliff Mohwinkel. In more news, Endwave has opened a new design center in Torrance, CA concentrating primarily on the design of millimeter-wave transceivers.
