Characterization of liquid crystal polymer for high frequency system-in-a-package applications

Liquid crystal polymer (LCP) is a promising substrate for electronics packaging. In this paper, the high frequency characteristics of LCP were investigated using a microstrip ring resonator to verify the possibility of applying the material in RF packaging. The relative dielectric constant and the loss tangent have been measured. The radiation loss of the ring is considered to accurately determine the loss tangent. A GaAs MMIC switch circuit was fabricated using LCP as substrate to demonstrate the application of this material for system-in-a-package. From the high frequency measurements, it is shown that LCP has low dielectric constant and low loss tangent in the frequency range from 1 GHz to 35 GHz. It is also found that LCP can be used in system-in-a-package applications.