Ruggedized HMIC S-X Band Frequency Converter for Severe Weather Tracking Radar

As climate change progresses, the severity of weather events is expected to increase leading to an increased risk for personal injury and property damage. Climate change has presented a need for increased tracking of severe weather for the purpose prediction and early warning systems. This thesis presented in this document is that the design of a hermetically sealed hybrid microwave integrated circuit (HMIC) up and down for use in an X-band severe weather tracking radar system would improve the environmental performance and reliability over the existing PCB (printed circuit board) based design. Analysis of the HMIC was shown to provide an MTBF of 4,304,307.19 hours compared to 1,593,498.52 hours for the PCB implementation or a factor of 2.7 time improvement in reliability. The two main drivers for improved reliability (determined by analysis) are the hermeticity of the HMIC, as well as improved thermal conductance from die junction to ambient.