Packaging has always been the “Achilles Heal” of extract-ing the maximum microwave performance out of any IC technology. The inherent parasitic capacitance and in-ductance associated with bond wires, lead frames, and encapsulating dielectric materials dominate the fnal products high frequency performance. One way to solve this problem is to eliminate parasitic causing factors and make the IC become the package. This is the basis of WSP (Wafer Scale Packaging). GaAs-Based Surface Mount Wafer Scale Package MMICs for DC to 45 GHz Applications White Paper By: Henrik Morkner I. Introduction Packaging has always been the “Achilles Heal” of extract- Avago Technologies has been experimenting with WSP for ing the maximum microwave performance out of any IC over 10 years. It was originally developed to provide a low technology. The inherent parasitic capacitance and in- cost hermetic package for FBAR MEMs silicon technology. ductance associated with bond wires, lead frames, and Leveraging off silicon wafer bonding technology, the WSP encapsulating dielectric materials dominate the final solution was applied to GaAs PHEMT IC fab……