MIKON Focused sessions
- Focused session 1
- Materials for Microwave Devices and Antennas
- Focused session 2
- Terahertz technologies, devices and systems
- Focused session 3
- Textile-integrated microwave components
- Focused session 4
- Europe’s first “Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI)” Innovative Technologies for Shaping the Future
„Materials for Microwave Devices and Antennas”
Focus area overview
The performance of microwave devices and antennas mainly depends on the properties of materials used in their design and implementation. Knowledge on material properties at microwave and higher frequencies is a prerequisite to select suitable materials for various microwave and antenna applications. The session will focus on advanced materials (including methods for their characterization and fabrication) with specific characteristics that allow obtaining new additional functionalities of devices/antennas, e.g. with extended tunability, with the possibility of fast switching, with the ability to absorb or reflect electromagnetic waves, with sensitivity to various gases, etc. All materials, such as magnetics, carbon-based materials, flexible or stretchable materials, biomaterials, phantoms, metamaterials, various composites, ceramics will be appreciated.
Session chair/organizer:

Yevhen Yashchyshyn, Professor, Ph.D, D.Sc.,
Head of Antennas and sub-THz research Group
Institute of Radioelectronics and
Multimedia Technology
Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland

Artur Rydosz, Professor AGH, Ph.D, D.Sc.,
Integrated Labaoratory of Sensor Nanostructures
Department of Electronics
AGH University of Science and Technology, Krakow, Poland
„Terahertz Technologies, Devices and Systems”
Focus area overview
Terahertz technologies are rapidly developing and highly promising for many life and scientific activities. This session is devoted to various aspects of terahertz radiation from physics, through technologies, to devices and systems. It will be a convenient opportunity to learn about the latest research and hot topics in the field of terahertz radiation.
Session chair/organizer:

Col. Norbert Palka, Ph.D., D.Sc., Eng.
Head of the Security Systems Group
Institute of Optoelectronics, Military University of Technology
Kaliskiego 2 St., 00-908 Warsaw, POLAND

Pawel Kopyt, Ph.D., D.Sc., Eng.
Institute of Radioelectronics and Multimedia technology, Warsaw University of Technology
Nowowiejska 15/19, 00-665 Warsaw, POLAND
„Textile-integrated Microwave Components”
Focus area overview
The session is focused on the integration of microwave components (antennas, filters, transmission lines) to textile materials. Attention is particularly turned to three-dimensional knitted fabrics to be used as a textile equivalent of conventional Teflon-based substrates. Manufacturing technologies and their limitations are going to be discussed and application examples are going to be given.
Session chair/organizer:

Jaroslav Lacik
Dept. of Radio Electronics
Brno University of Technology
Czech Republic

Europe’s first “Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI)”
Innovative Technologies for Shaping the Future
Background to IPCEI:
In December 2018 the European Commission approved a project proposal of four EU member states – France, Germany, Italy and the UK – to start an “Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI)” on Microelectronics. It will allow the national governments to spend about €1.8 billion as public support to the project partners for innovative research and development, and investment in first industrial deployment. The project’s overall objective is to enable research and development of innovative technologies and advanced electronics components. Among them are semiconductor chip technologies, integrated circuits, sensors, assembly and packaging technologies as well as advanced equipment and materials. Target applications are consumer devices, for example home appliances and automated vehicles, commercial and industrial devices, such as the management systems for batteries used for electric mobility and energy storage. The integrated research and innovation project involves 27 direct participants. These direct participants will work in collaboration with a large number of partners, such as research organizations or small and medium-sized enterprises.
The IPCEI project is focusing on five technology fields, which are complementary and interlinked.
- Energy efficient chips: Development of new solutions to improve the energy efficiency of chips. Besides others, they will reduce the overall energy consumption of electronic devices including those installed in cars.
- Power semiconductors: Development of new technologies of components for smart appliances as well as for electric and hybrid vehicles, to increase the reliability of final semiconductor devices.
- Smart sensors: Development of new optical, motion or magnetic field sensors with improved performance and enhanced accuracy. Besides others, such smart sensors will contribute to improve the traffic safety of cars by better adapting the overall traffic situation. Key will be to make sensor systems with shorter reaction time and increased reliability available.
- Advanced optical equipment: Development of advanced technologies for future high-end chips.
- Compound materials: Development of new compound materials (replacing silicon) and devices suitable for more advanced chips.
IPCEI Session at MIKON 2020: Millimeter-Wave Technologies in the “Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI)”and Related Projects – A Dedicated Session on Technology Field III Sensor Technologies
Abstract:
The IPCEI project’s overall objective is to enable research and development of innovative technologies and advanced electronics components with focus on strengthening development of production capabilities in Europe. During recent years, mm-wave technologies have shown impressive application potential e.g. for radar application. Recent package technology developments on fan-out wafer-level packaging (WLP) technologies push mm-wave application to mainstream applications. Focus of this special focus session at MIKON 2020 will be to present results from industrial research on mm-wave technologies and their application in the IPCEI. We will present results on two different SiGe semiconductor technologies investigated and developed by GlobalFoundries and Infineon, and we will introduce assembly and package design including antenna integration. We will present results on chip-package-board-system co-design for supporting first time right technology runs. Focus will be to highlight a coherent chip-package-board-system approach. We will discuss potential mm-wave technologies and their technology capabilities. Finally, we introduce potential future applications like radar system for autonomous driving. Representatives of the major European microelectronics industry will give an insight into their R&D work and first results achieved to support development to set-up mm-wave fabrication capabilities of innovative products in Europe.
Part 1:
Session chairs:
Klaus Pressel
Infineon Technologies AG
Regensburg, Germany
Maciej Wojnowski
Infineon Technologies AG
Munich, Germany
1. Klaus Pressel, Infineon Technologies AG, Regensburg, Germany, “Introduction to Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI)” (10 min.)
Abstract: In December 2018 the European Commission approved a project proposal of four EU member states – France, Germany, Italy and the UK – to start an “Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI)” on Microelectronics. It will allow the national governments to spend about €1.8 billion as public support to the project partners for innovative research and development, and investment in first industrial deployment. This presentation will provide a short introduction into the IPCEI project and the five technology fields covered. The project’s overall objective is to enable research and development of innovative technologies and advanced electronics components. The importance of R&D in First Industrial Deployment is for the five technologies is highlighted. Of special importance is R&D along the value chain chip-package-board/system. The mm-wave topics of the MIKON Focus Session is an example where the technology fields TF1 Energy efficient chips, TF2 power devices and TF3 sensors collaborate.
2. Robert Gruenberger, Infineon Technologies AG, Regensburg, Germany, “SiGe Technologies with Cut-Off Frequencies Towards 600 GHz for Future mm-Wave Sensing in Automotive and Industrial Applications” (30 min.)
Abstract: Today’s SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBT) in BiCMOS technology environment enable the realization of highly integrated radar sensors for motor vehicles in the range from 76 to 81 GHz at reasonable costs. With fMAX values from 300 to 400 GHz and a fT in the range from 200 to 300 GHz, they form the basis for the wide use of safety-relevant automotive applications such as autonomous emergency brakes, collision avoidance or lane change assist, even in low-cost cars. SiGe HBT BiCMOS technologies therefore led to a strong boost, especially in the development activities for autonomously driving cars. The automotive radar as the first “mass market” for mm-wave technologies and circuits has increased investment in research and development in mm-wave technology considerably. Other, new and emerging mm-wave and THz applications will benefit enormously from this development. The development of SiGe HBT BiCMOS technologies with cut-off frequencies above 500 GHz is about to qualify and start of production. The use of higher operating frequencies and significantly shorter wavelengths enables new and very compact high-performance radar sensors with integrated antennas with high amplification. It offers significantly improved spatial, angular and Doppler (speed) resolution for future autonomous cars, gesture and environment detection in general, personal health monitoring and THz imaging and spectroscopy. The talk gives an overview of the development status of the next-generation 600 GHz SiGe HBT BiCMOS process from Infineon and illustrates the challenges and how they are mastered.
3. Nan Wu, GlobalFoundries Fab One, Dresden, Germany, “22FDX Technology for Fully-Integrated mm-Wave Radar Applications” (30 min.)
Abstract: Silicon CMOS technologies have been advancing over decades, such that they start to enter the millimeter wave realm which has been traditionally dominated by BiCMOS and/or III-V technologies. In particular, Globalfoundries 22FDX® technology is a state-of-the-art planar CMOS technology that provides additional unique benefits from fully-depleted SOI for millimeter-wave and RADAR applications. It provides (1) transistors of fT > 350GHz and fMAX > 390GHz; (2) ultralow parasitic capacitances; and (3) novel back-biasing capability fully-integrated into SoC. In this talk, excellent device figure-of-merits will be presented for millimeter wave and RADAR transceivers. Specific features, such as relaxed-pitch, extended device-isolation from substrate, mmW Inductor, etc., are introduced as millimeter-wave enhancements. Finally, circuit demonstrators will be briefly discussed with a summary of 22FDX® platform outlook.
4. Maciej Wojnowski, Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany, “Packaging Trends for mm-Wave Radar and Communication Systems” (30 min.)
Abstract: System-in-package (SiP) is a major trend in integration of microelectronic systems to tackle the increasing needs for more functionality into a smaller volume. SiP leads to heterogeneous integration of integrated circuits along with sensors, microelectromechanical components, passive devices, filters and antennas. Another important trend in packaging is the continuing move toward higher frequencies. 5G high-speed wireless communication, mm-wave radar for autonomous driving and high-resolution mm-wave environment sensing and imaging are just a few examples of applications for future markets. In this talk, we present the latest developments in packaging technologies for mm-wave radar and communication systems. We demonstrate the system integration capabilities of the embedded wafer level ball grid array (eWLB) technology. After introduction of low-loss transmission lines and high-quality planar inductors in thin-film redistribution layers (RDL), we present chip-package-board transitions without external matching networks optimized for use in the 60/70/80 GHz bands. We present the concepts of antenna integration in eWLB and show examples of different antenna structures. To demonstrate the system-in-package integration capabilities of eWLB, we show 60 GHz and 77 GHz eWLB transceiver modules with integrated antennas. The use of vertical interconnections and double-sided RDL extend the integration capabilities to the third dimension. We present ways of realizing vertical interconnections in eWLB using through encapsulate vias (TEV) and novel embedded Z lines (EZL) technology. We show examples of vertical interconnections, embedded passives, RF transitions and 3D antennas realized using the TEV and EZL technology. Finally we present the concept of substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) for eWLB. To combine advantages of planar circuits with rectangular waveguides we present a novel, compact and low-loss transition from chip to SIW in eWLB and to standard WR10 rectangular waveguide.
Part 2:
Session chairs:
Klaus Pressel
Infineon Technologies AG
Regensburg, Germany
Maciej Wojnowski
Infineon Technologies AG
Munich, Germany
1. Thomas Brandtner, Infineon Technologies AG, Villach, Austria, “Chip-Package-Board-System Co-Design” (30 min.)
Abstract: Heterogeneous integration leads to significant increase in design complexity. This complexity can be handled properly only by an enhanced design environment and extensive use of electronic design automation (EDA). It turns out that such a design system needs to be based on multi-dimensional modularization: modularization in configuration (like assembly design kits, so-called ADKs), modularization in data exchange and data storage (standardized file formats and data management), and modularization in design environments (even across company boundaries). We have developed a versatile, generic design flow environment, which enables the configuration of several ADKs in addition to a process development kit (PDK) for a complete chip-package-board design project. The content of an ADK has been aligned with the underlying set of EDA tools in the corresponding design flow. It needs to enable and support various steps in chip-package-board co-design:
- Connectivity (schematic) entry
- Concurrent layout design both in fully automated digital place-and-route as well as in full-custom manual style
- Assembly design rule checks (DRC)
- Overall connectivity checks: layout-versus-schematic (LVS) even across chip, package, and board domain
- 3D model generation for subsequent package parasitic extraction and electro-magnetic field simulation
We present a modular full-custom chip-package-board co-design environment based on a versatile backbone idea and a powerful concurrent layout environment, which has been applied successfully to various system-in-package (SiP) designs. We show design methodology challenges and the application of our co-design flow to RF and mmWave designs in fan-out WLP (FOWLP) or laminate BGA and LGA.
2. Jean-Christophe Houdbert, Laurent Dugoujon, STMicroelectronics, Grenoble France, “ST Technologies for mmW and Perspectives, MPW Access within IPCEI on Microelectronics Frame or Collaborative Projects” (30 Min)
Abstract: Consolidation of 4G LTE and 5G networks and emergence of 6G is calling for higher rates wireline and wireless connectivity solutions. This presentation will give an overview of the main high-rate links where mmW capable technologies are required. A review of associated addressable markets will be also discussed with some consequences in terms of Silicon process options. More detailed mmW technology description will be displayed concerning STMicroelectronics proprietary SIGe BiCMOS and CMOS on SOI process flavors giving an industrial answer to mmW challenges. Access to STMicroelectronics mmW capable technologies through Multi-Project Wafer production schemes within IPCEI on Microelectronics or European collaborative projects will be explained. Examples of circuit performances will be presented to illustrate the added-value in terms of speed, noise, power efficiency…Some advanced roadmap information will be disclosed about forthcoming process from STMicroelectronics as well as some insights on collaborative R&D projects in the scope of mmW to contribute in building European vision on mmW industrial future.
3. Jürgen Hasch, Robert Bosch GmbH, Renningen, Germany, “The Rising Wave of Millimeter-Wave Sensing” (30 min.)
Abstract: Millimeter-wave radar provides robust high-resolution distance, velocity, and angle information, as well as small-movement characterization. With the advent of low-cost semiconductor and packaging technologies that allow mass-producing millimeter-wave components, the widespread use of millimeter-wave sensors has started to become reality. Since the first introduction in the automotive area, radar has become a key sensing modality for driver assistance and automated driving. Here, a new generation of sensors and algorithms moves radar sensing from simple detection to classification and mapping. Additionally, new applications in robotics and consumer devices are starting to be realized. Small size, invisible integration, low-cost, and privacy are some of the advantages radars provide here. However, key for widespread adoption is a systems-approach that significantly reduces the application effort by using a single-piece digital-and-analog packaged component. Some obstacles to widespread adoption remain. Technical challenges include how to interpret and apply the sensor information to the given use-case, and low-power operation to make battery-operated devices feasible. On the non-technical side, world-wide harmonized frequency regulation remains a challenge.
Session chair/organizer:

Klaus Pressel
Technology Development Coordination
Infineon Technologies AG
Regensburg, Germany

Maciej Wojnowski
Head RF Package Simulation & Characterization
Infineon Technologies AG
Munich, Germany