5G/6G MAESTRO Roadmap on Low Loss Dielectric Materials Characterization Available Online

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The International Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (iNEMI) announces the availability of the Low Loss Dielectric Materials Characterization Roadmap, which is part of the 5G/6G mmWave Materials and Electrical Test Technology Roadmap (5G/6G MAESTRO).

MAESTRO, managed by iNEMI, is a joint industry/academia project sponsored by the NIST Office of Advance Manufacturing’s Advanced Manufacturing Technology (MfgTech) Roadmap Program. The MAESTRO team is developing a comprehensive 10-year hardware roadmap for mmWave materials development and electrical characterization and test, along with an implementation strategy to execute the vision of the roadmap and promote the growth of a strong U.S. workforce in radio frequency (RF) communication technologies. This first of two documents comprising the roadmap focuses on materials characterization of low loss dielectric materials. The second document will cover materials development and electrical test.

The Need for Low-loss Dielectric Materials Characterization and Traceable Standard Reference Materials

Several industry reports and roadmaps have identified development and characterization of materials for mmWave among the greatest technical challenges for 5G hardware implementations. Reliable, repeatable and fast low loss material characterization and testing are critical. Circuit designers need dielectric property data for materials at millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequencies to optimize device performance of new hardware and for quality assurance.

Furthermore, traceable standard reference materials are needed to accurately characterize materials. Manufacturers often must extrapolate low-frequency data to 5G mmWave frequencies when they accept new material from vendors. Such extrapolation can lead to disagreements between values specified by the vendor and values measured by manufacturers and can result in unpredictable performance of deployed hardware. A key root cause for these major discrepancies is the lack of traceable reference material for mmWave frequencies. This gap makes verification of measurement methods and laboratory techniques impossible in an industry setting.

Michael J. Hill, Principal Engineer at Intel, explains that 5G and beyond will utilize materials that are different from what the industry is using today, and development of new materials requires the ability to evaluate the performance of those materials at use condition. Semiconductor products, equipment suppliers, and material manufacturers have significant exposure if characterizations are incorrect, particularly for products that are manufactured in high volumes.

“Advanced low loss materials often come with significant cost adders,” says Hill. “If a new material is $2 per unit more expensive than an existing material, we must be able to accurately assess the performance benefit this $2 will provide. If metrology errors overestimate the benefit of this new material, we could incorrectly move to the new material and suffer a $40 million dollar error when this cost is applied to a product line shipping 20 million units.”