Implementation of a gallium arsenide multichip digital circuit operating at 500-1000 MHz clock rates using a Si/Cu/SiO/sub 2/ MCM-D technology

Two different deposited multichip modules (MCMs) were fabricated in nCHIP's nC3000 Si/Cu/SiO/sub 2/ process. The first of these MCMs was a passive test coupon containing a variety of microstrip and stripline transmission line structures, allowing the measurement of dc and ac signal amplitude losses in long conductors, as well as assessments of crosstalk and reflections as functions of line dimensions and spacings. The second MCM incorporated sixteen Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) integrated circuits, all designed to work together at clock rates in the hundreds of MHz; all components were attached, face up, with an aluminum wire bonding process. The design, fabrication, assembly and test processes for these modules will be described, as well as the lessons learned about this MCM process for the design of subsystems up to the high hundreds of MHz clock rates.