Glass-Based Phased Array Antenna Platform for 30 GHz to 300 GHz

The focus of this Phase I STTR is a novel glass-based 3D integration platform for millimeter wave phased array antennas.  Such arrays are an essential part mm wave and sub-THz electronically steered antennas for satellite, aircraft  and terrestrial (5G and DoD) communications.  The platform is based on Mosaic Microsystems’ thin glass technologies and on millimeter wave ICs and 3D packaging being developed at RPI.  Mosaic’s technology enables thin glass (100 µm) to be processed in a standard semiconductor fabrication facility, creating the ability to form through-glass vias, thin film passive devices and micron-scale RF transmission lines.  Multiple layers of glass with vias can be used to form low loss 3D RF feed networks for beam scanning. The approach includes attaching bare RF die to a whole glass wafer.  RPI will investigate the use of commercially available RF die as well as custom designs and a hybrid of the two.  Part of Phase I will involve customer discovery, and initial contact has already been made with one AFRL working on THz communications.  Additional elements of Phase I are a CRADA with NIST to measure the RF properties of glass up to 1 THz and a novel array architecture developed at AFRL.