Highly integrated transmit/receive modules are key components for modern active phased array radar systems. This paper describes architecture and related interconnect technologies for a novel transmit/receive module with integrated radiating element and circulator for X-band applications. It allows the realization of future planar or conformal active antenna arrays with low installation depth as well as high maintainability performance.

An overall Low-Temperature Co-flred Ceramics (LTCC) package solution for X-band T/R module has been presented in this paper. This tile type package contributes to a dramatic reduction in size and weight of the T/R module. Moreover, an obvious merit of ceramic housing is better consistency of Coe-cient of Thermal Expansion (CTE), compared with the traditional combination of ceramic board and metal housing. The schematic diagram and 3-D structure of the T/R module have been presented and a novel vertical interconnection based on Ball Grid Array (BGA) has been proposed to connect vias in the lid and those in the stage of the main LTCC pan. The LTCC T/R module has been fabricated and measured. It is compact in size (20 £ 20 £ 2:6mm 3 ) and has a weight of 3.5g. The measured transmit output power is 33§1dBm in the frequency range from 8.8GHz to 10.4GHz, and the measured receive gain and Noise Figure are 29{30.5dB and 2.6{2.8dB, respectively.

tile type structure based on fuzz button solderless vertical interconnection shows wide band characteristic of about 30 % bandwidth in X-band with insertion loss of below 0.6 dB and input and output VSWR of less than 1.7. Moreover, the mismatching generally appeared in the vertical interconnection which shown wide band characteristic can also be minimized and, therefore, good gain flatness can be achieved.

The important parameters which effect the performance of a connector at high data rates and rf frequencies are: crosstalk, signal propagation delay, capacitance, inductance, signal bandwidth, skin effect and phase shift amongst others. The characteristic impedance that is an important parameter of this type of connector is determined largely from the capacitance value and in some minor ways by the inductance value. This capacitance value, which is very low on a Fuzz Button connection, also affects directly the amount of crosstalk between adjacent pins. Capacitance and inductance also produce the phase shift between voltage and current and play an important role in the signal bandwidth. The higher the capacitance and the lower the value of inductance gives a lower characteristic impedance and vice versa. Characteristic impedance increases as the conductor cross section decreases