Package design and fabrication techniques are critical to the high-frequency community. In building improved products, packaging developments are driven by economics, performance, and reliability. For example, the telecom industry as a whole is currently pushing to improve electrical performance and lower cost by replacing the current transceiver designs with new surface mount solutions. This book is intended for electrical engineers involved in designing microwave circuits. As operating frequencies rise with the emergence of high-speed products, engineers will increasingly need a good understanding of RF/microwave packaging.

This book presents engineering breakthroughs in liquid crystal polymer (LCP) applications to microwave-frequency electronics. It appears that LCP is a highly attractive platform to achieve low-cost hermetic devices that offer mechanical flexibility. These benefits are attractive for applications in gigabit wireless communication, radar and imaging systems. Liquid crystal polymer research is currently a very hot topic in microwave engineering, with contributions from several research groups and organizations on a global level.

As we will discuss, using LCP can be challenging at times. The inert chemistry of LCP, which provides its attractive electrical and mechanical properties, can also act to hinder actual circuit build. The book gives brief descriptions of the theory and provides deep insights into the practical issues of design and realization with LCP. Numerous real-world examples with expanded explanations of previously published works are included to create a comprehensive and cohesive volume. We hope to share tips and tricks that we have found for successfully processing LCP for microwave packages and circuit modules. We describe successful techniques in using LCP and how to avoid pitfalls.