Atom Watanabe won the ICEP 2018 IEEE CPMT Japan Chapter Young Award at the 2018 International Conference on Electronics Packaging (ICEP), held April 17-21 in Mie, Japan. 

Watanabe is a Ph.D. student in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and is mentored by Raj Pulugurtha, an ECE senior research engineer, and advised by ECE Professor Rao Tummala.

Watanabe received the award for his paper entitled “Design and Demonstration of Ultra-thin 3D Glass-based 5G Modules with Low-loss Interconnects.” The paper demonstrates seamless antenna-to-transceiver signal transitions on large and ultra-thin glass-based 5G modules with impedance-matched transmission lines and microvias with high-precision and low-loss re-distribution layer design and fabrication for 5G communications at the 28 GHz band.

This research was supported by the Industry Consortium of the 3D Systems Packaging Research Center (PRC) at Georgia Tech. Watanabe and his colleagues in the PRC are developing all of the basic technologies to design and demonstrate 5G glass-based packages for high-bandwidth mobile wireless, IoT, smart cities, and intelligent automotive communication needs.