Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Birmingham
3D Modeling and Simulation of the Electromagnetic and Thermal
Properties of Microwave and Millimeter Wave Electronics Packages
Jian Ding, David Linton
The Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT), Queen’s University
Belfast, Northern Ireland Science Park, Queen’s Road, Queen’s Island, Belfast, Northern Ireland, BT3
9DT, UK
Email: j.ding@ecit.qub.ac.uk
Abstract: The COMSOL Multiphysics™
package has been used in this work to model and
simulate the electromagnetic and thermal
properties of GaAs pHEMT based Monolithic
Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMIC) and a
multi-chip millimeter wave package including a
Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic (LTCC)
antenna array. Embedded shielding ground
planes inside the ceramic and silicon carriers
have been studied. The temperature increase of
each component due to the self heating of the
power devices in the packages was simulated
coupled with the static electromagnetic analysis.
Simulation results of the MMIC structures were
compared with the results from an analysis
method based electro-thermal simulator
fREEDA™. The need for thermal vias was
demonstrated as essential parts of the package
for thermal cooling purposes.
Keywords: Monolithic Microwave Integrated
Circuits (MMIC), System-in-Package (SiP), Low
Temperature Co-fired Ceramic (LTCC), thermal
model, thermal vias, temperature
1. Introduction
Increasing miniaturization in microwave and
millimeter wave circuits is being driven by the
requirement for portability and low power
consumption. With the closer integration of
active and passive components in packages it is
now increasingly difficult to dissipate the
thermal power generated from the power devices
[1]. This results in an increase in average active
device temperature pushing junction
temperatures to dangerous levels. This will
adversely affect the electrical performance of
devices leading to failure.
Due to the miniaturized package, high
density of the power devices and microwave or
millimeter wave operation frequency,
electromagnetic shielding inside the package is
becoming more and more important and worth
being investigated for the physical layout
solidity.
Therefore, predictive design, based on
accurate thermal and electromagnetic models and
simulations, is quite necessary before the
electronic circuits being manufactured.
COMSOL Multiphysics™ is an efficient
package that implements this simulation
approach in microwave and millimeter wave
circuits in which both thermal and
electromagnetic co-analysis are supported [2].
A GaAs pHEMT based MMIC amplifier
package was modeled and simulated in
COMSOL Multiphysics™ to obtain the
temperature profile. Electro-thermal simulations
of the amplifier were also performed using a
spice-like circuit simulator fREEDA™ [3].
A 65GHz RF transmitter module, which is
the foundation of wireless communication
systems, has been designed by applying
multilayer SiP technology. A family of QUB
OMMIC MMICs in GaAs pHEMT D01PH
technology was used to supply 65GHz signals to
an antenna array [4]. Low Temperature Co-fired
Ceramic (LTCC), which is a popular
manufacturing technology for millimeter wave
applications, was used to build a compact 65GHz
2×2 microstrip phased array antenna. The MMIC
die and LTCC antenna module are positioned in
cavities within a silicon substrate.
Electromagnetic shielding and thermal issues of
the whole module were analyzed using
COMSOL Multiphysics™. Metallic gridded
ground planes and thermal cooling has been
improved based on the simulation results.
2. GaAs MMIC Amplifier and System-in-
Package Transmitter Module
2.1 GaAs MMIC Amplifier
Electro-thermal simulations were carried out
for a GaAs MMIC amplifier using fREEDA™
package. Temperature increase at the junction of
the power device and the electrical performance
 Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Birmingham
influenced by the thermal effect were obtained.
Figure 1 shows the schematic of the amplifier
circuit in the package fREEDA™.
Thermal model of the MMIC die was setup
in COMSOL Multiphysics™ as a cubic with
single central surface heating element as shown
in Figure 2.
Figure 1. Circuit schematic of the GaAs MMIC
amplifier simulated in fREEDA™ [5].
CPW
Interface
Figure 2. GaAs MMIC die model in COMSOL
Multiphysics™.
2.2 System-in-Package Transmitter Module
The multi-chip transmitter module was
designed in modular form, consisting of a
32GHz oscillator, a 32GHz power amplifier, a
32/64GHz doubler, an up-converter, three
64GHz phase shifters, four 64-66GHz power
amplifiers and four microstrip antennas. The
block diagram of the designed transmitter
module is shown in Figure 3.
A GaAs chip set has already been developed
at 65GHz using OMMIC GaAs pHEMT D01PH
technology targeted at wireless LAN operation
[4]. A 65GHz 2×2 Microstrip phase array
antenna was designed and fabricated using
Figure 3. Block diagram of the 65GHz transmitter
module [6].
multilayer LTCC technology [6]. Beam steering
can be obtained by varying the phase of
Antenna Patches
individual antenna elements using phase shifters.
Stripline feed
The side view of the LTCC structure Partially
is shown in Gridded
Ceramic Ground Planes
Figure 4.
AgPt Via Silver Via Probe
Figure 4. Side View of the LTCC antenna (size not in
scale).
Inductively-coupled-plasma reactive ion
etching (ICP-RIE) is applied to make device
wells in the silicon substrate for all the
components. Well lateral dimension and well
depth are carefully controlled for the active
MMIC dies and antenna package. Summaries of
all the MMIC dies, LTCC antenna and silicon
substrate are shown in table 1. A top view of the
whole System-in-Package is shown in Figure 5.
3. COMSOL Multiphysics™ Models and
Simulation Results
The thermal model of the MMIC die and
multi-chip System-in-Package was setup and
analyzed using COMSOL Multiphysics™.
 Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Birmingham

Figure 6 shows the meshing of the cubic MMIC ( )

n ⋅ (κ ⋅ ∇T ) = q + h(Tinf − T ) + Const Tamb − T 4 (2)
4

die model with a single central surface heating

element. Figure 7 shows the temperature Equation (1) was set up for sub-domain
distribution of the MMIC die model with a 100 analyses and Equation (2) was for boundary
KHz input signal shortly after switch on using analyses. Detailed meaning of the parameters in
transient analysis. Figure 8 shows the both equations is shown in Table 2. Table 3 is
temperature variation of the MMIC amplifier the summary of the thermal properties of
with a 1MHz input signal from transient analysis different materials in the package.
in both fREEDA™ and COMSOL
Multiphysics™.

Component Name Size ( mm 3 )

32GHz Oscillator QUBOSC5 3×2×0.1
32GHz Power Amplifier QUBAMP2 3×1×0.1
32/64GHz Doubler QUBDOUB 2×1.5×0.1
Mixer QUBMIX4 2×1.5×0.1
64GHz Phase Shifter QUBPS1 1.5×1×0.1
64GHz Power Amplifier QUBCIRC1 3×2×0.1
LTCC Antenna Array ------ 18×18×1.2
Silicon Substrate ------ 34×30×1
Table 1. Component summary of the System-in- Figure 6. Meshing of the cubic MMIC die model with
Package. a single central surface heating element.

Figure 7. Temperature distribution of a MMIC

amplifier thermal model 50 micro-seconds after switch
on from transient simulation in COMSOL
Figure 5. Top View of the transmitter module. Multiphysics™.

Thermal stress is induced in the System-in-
Package transmitter module due to the high
thermal gradient around devices with dissimilar
TCE. Meshing of the whole package model that
was setup using COMSOL Multiphysics™ is
shown in Figure 9. Two main thermal equations
that were solved in the 3D thermal analysis are:
− ∇ ⋅ (κ ⋅ ∇ T ) = Q (1)
and
Active devices (pHEMTs) were modeled as
20μm × 20μm squares dissipating power on the
central surface of each MMIC die. About 50,000
meshes were generated using the meshing tool in
COMSOL Multiphysics™. Stationary nonlinear
simulations were performed on the whole
package with and without thermal vias.
Figure 10 and Figure 11 shows the
simulation results of the package temperature
distribution with and without thermal vias
 Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Birmingham

respectively. The temperature of the pHEMT on Silicon GaAs LTCC Thermal

the oscillator MMIC die in the package arises vias
about 75 degrees after the heat dissipation Thermal
reaches steady state without thermal vias as conductivity 163 55 2 400
shown in Figure 10 (d), while it rises no more W/(m·K)
than 15 degrees in the simulation with thermal Density 2330 5320 2450 8700
vias as shown in Figure 11 (d). Kg/ m 3

310 Heat 703 330 900 385

capacity
J/(Kg·K)
308
Table 3. Thermal properties of different materials in the
System-in-Package
Temperature (K)

306

304
Vds = 3V
Vgs = -0.3V
302 f = 1MHz

300
(a) (b)
0 1 2 3 4 5
Time ( μs )

Figure 8. Temperature variation of the amplifier

MMIC die from transient simulation in fREEDA™
(Red line) and COMSOL Multiphysics™ (Black line,
central point on the top surface of the MMIC die).
(c) (d)
Figure 10. Steady-state simulation results of the
temperature distribution of the package without
thermal vias, (a) 3D view of the boundary temperature
distribution of the whole package, (b) temperature
distribution of one slice inside the silicon substrate, (c)
temperature distribution of the area around the
oscillator MMIC die, (d) temperature distribution of
the area around the pHEMT in the oscillator MMIC
die

4. Thermal Vias Improvement

Figure 9. Meshing of the thermal model for the
System-in-Package transmitter module.
κ Thermal conductivity
Q Heat dissipation inside the sub-domain
q Heat dissipation on the boundary surface
h Heat transfer coefficient (convection)
Tinf Initial temperature of the boundary surface
Const Problem-dependent constant (radiation)
Tamb Ambient temperature
Table 2. Meaning of the parameters in above equations
Simulation results illustrate that thermal vias
are very necessary structures inside the package
to effectively speed up the heat dissipation and
reduce the maximum temperature in the active
regions of the package when the whole system
reaches steady state. The cross section
temperature through one of the oscillator MMIC
devices is shown in Figure 12. The effect of
thermal vias is clear by reducing the peak
temperature from 368K to a more manageable
315K.
 Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Birmingham
(a)
(c)
Figure 11. Steady-state simulation results of the
temperature distribution of the package with thermal
vias, (a) 3D view of the boundary temperature
distribution of the whole package, (b) temperature
distribution of one slice inside the silicon substrate, (c)
temperature distribution of the area around the
oscillator MMIC die, (d) temperature distribution of
the area around the pHEMT in the oscillator MMIC
die
380
370
Wit h t her mal vias
Wit hout t her mal vias
360
350
340
330
320
3 10
300
0 . 0 0 12 0 . 0 0 13 0 . 0 0 14
Os c i l l at or M M I C D i e Di s t anc e (m)
Figure 12. Simulated surface temperature across the
Oscillator GaAs MMIC device with and without
thermal vias Circuit schematic of the GaAs MMIC
amplifier simulated in fREEDA™
The results also demonstrate that thermal
vias do not have as much influence for
temperature rising of the passive areas in the
package as for the active devices in the package.
In the results shown in Figure 10 and Figure 11,
thermal vias reduce the temperature rising of the
passive areas in the package by only around 7
degrees from 312K to 305K.
5. Conclusions
Two different simulation methods have been
used to model similar problems for a GaAs
MMIC amplifier. For circuit synthesis
fREEDATM provides fast efficient prediction of
electro-thermal performance while COMSOLTM
(b) extends this to give the thermal profile around a
MMIC die and associated package.
This paper has also presented a compact
65GHz transmitter module with a LTCC phased
array antenna and functional MMICs, which
includes oscillator, power amplifier, doubler, up-
converter and phase shifter implemented in
(d) GaAs pHEMT technology. All the components
were embedded within a 3.4cm × 3cm silicon
substrate. Based on the 3D model which was set
up in COMSOL Multiphysics™, electromagnetic
shielding and thermal cooling factors which
consist of package size, well depth, space
between dies and bonding pads, extension of the
gridded ground plane and thermal vias influence
etc. have been studied. Physical properties of the
module have been improved based on the results
revealed from the analyses. The use of thermal
vias has been presented about their advantages in
heat dissipation of the whole package.
6. References
1. D. Edenfeld, A.B. Kahng, M. Rodgers and Y.
Zorian, “2003 technology roadmap for
semiconductors”, Computer, Vol.37, Issue
1, pp.47-56, Jan. 2004
2. COMSOL Multiphysics™ Software and
0 . 0 0 15 0 . 0 0 16 0 . 0 0 17 0 . 0 0 18
Manuals, www.comsol.com
3. fREEDA™ Software and Manuals,
www.freeda.org
4. N. B. Buchanan, T. Brabetz and V. F. Fusco,
“Multifunction 62-66 GHz Dual Channel, Dual
Band Phase Sensitive Transceiver”, 31th
European Microwave Conference Proceedings,
Vol.3, pp.161-164, Sept. 2001
5. W. Batty, C.E. Christoffersen, A.J. Panks, S.
David, C.M. Snowden and M.B. Steer, “Electro-
thermal CAD of power devices and circuits with
fully physical time-dependent compact thermal
modeling of complex nonlinear 3-D systems”,
IEEE Trans. on Components and Packaging
Technologies, Vol.24, pp.566-590, Dec. 2001
6. J. Ding, D. Linton, M. Armstrong, N. Mitchell
and V. Fusco, “Multiphysics Simulation of
 Excerpt from the Proceedings of the COMSOL Users Conference 2006 Birmingham

Electromagnetic Shielding and Thermal

Stressing within Ceramic and Silicon Multilayer
Packages for RF Applications”, 1st Electronics
Systemintegration Technology Conference
Proceedings, Vol. I, pp.679-683, Sept. 2006
7. J.M. Hill, J.N. Dewynne, “Heat conduction”,
Oxford: Blackwell Scientific, ISBN 0632017163,
1987.

7. Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Malcolm Stubbs

and Alex Panther at CRC in Canada for their
advice in design of the LTCC antenna array and
to VTT in Finland for fabrication of the LTCC
device. The design and fabrication experience of
Dr Paul Rainey in the Northern Ireland
Semiconductor Research Centre is also
acknowledged. J. Ding would like to
acknowledge financial support by the
International Centre for System-on-Chip and
Advanced Mircowireless Integration (SoCAM)
in the Institute of ECIT, Queen’s University
Belfast.