Aerosol Jet Printed Millimeter Wave Interconnects in D-Band

Printed MMIC interconnects are a promising solution for mmW packages above 100 GHz. In this work, we were able to evaluate the performance of such interconnects precisely by printing an interconnect between two pieces of CPW transmission lines separated by a trench simulating the gap between substrate and MMIC in a package. Applying the TRL calibration algorithm allowed us to remove the influence of the feed lines and determine the performance of the printed interconnect alone. We could show that it is well-matched in the entire D-Band and that the losses are as low as 0.23 dB from 119 to 170 GHz. We were hence able to show that printed MMIC interconnects are a promising solution for high-performance, ultra-wideband packages above 100 GHz.