Patent ID: 8624373

Claim:
A miniature microwave component for surface mounting, said component comprising: (a) an MMIC microwave chip having an active face and a rear face opposite the active face, said chip further including electronic elements and electrical conductors on the active face, and electrical conductors including an electrical ground conductor on the rear face, the electrical conductor defining a ground plane; and (b) a package encapsulating of the chip, the package including a metal base having two faces that include (i) a face for mounting the chip in the package via a rear face of the chip, (ii) a rear face opposite to said face and carrying the electrical ground conductor, wherein said metal base further includes an aperture between the opposite faces for passage of an electromagnetic wave; and two access ports in the metal base for communication of electrical signals between the inside and the outside of the package, said two access ports including (i) a contactless microwave access port, by electromagnetic coupling at the aperture in the metal base, ensuring transmission of coupling signals at a working frequency F 0 , and (ii) a subharmonic access port via an electrical contact pad, for inputting, into the microwave chip, a subharmonic frequency F 0 /n of the working frequency F 0 , n being an integer number bigger than 1, wherein the chip further includes, among the electrical conductors, a coupling electrical conductor connected to the electronic elements of the chip, the coupling electrical conductor being placed at the contactless microwave access port in order to transmit microwave signals by electromagnetic coupling at the working frequency F 0 , the package includes electrical contact pads on the rear face of the metal base for interconnecting the chip with other electronic components by an interconnection substrate, and the electrical conductors on the active face of the chip are directly connected via connection wires to the electrical contact pads on the rear face of the metal base of the package.