Title :
3-D construction of monolithic passive components for RF and microwave ICs using thick-metal surface micromachining technology
Author :
Jun-Bo Yoon ; Kim, Byeong-Il ; Choi, Yun-Seok ; Yoon, Euisik
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Korea Adv. Inst. of Sci. & Technol., Daejeon, South Korea
Abstract :
As a viable technological option to address today´s strong demands for high-performance monolithic low-cost passive components in RF and microwave integrated circuits (ICs), a new CMOS-compatible versatile thick-metal surface micromachining technology has been developed. This technology enables to build arbitrary three-dimensional (3-D) metal microstructures on standard silicon substrate as post-IC processes at low temperature below 120/spl deg/C. Using this technology, various highly suspended 3-D microstructures have been successfully demonstrated for RF and microwave IC applications. We have demonstrated spiral inductors suspended 100 /spl mu/m over the substrate, coplanar waveguides suspended 50 /spl mu/m over the substrate, and complicated microcoaxial lines, which have 50-/spl mu/m-suspended center signal lines surrounded by inclined ground shields of 100 /spl mu/m in height. The microwave performance of the microcoaxial transmission line fabricated on a glass substrate has been evaluated to achieve very low attenuation of 0.03 dB/mm at 10 GHz with an effective dielectric constant of 1.6. The process variation/manufacturability, mechanical stability, and package issues also have been discussed in detail.
Keywords :
coaxial cables; coplanar waveguides; inductors; micromachining; microwave integrated circuits; radiofrequency integrated circuits; 10 GHz; 120 degC; RF IC; Si; coplanar waveguide; dielectric constant; glass substrate; ground shield; microcoaxial transmission line; microwave IC; microwave attenuation; monolithic passive component; silicon substrate; spiral inductor; suspended three-dimensional microstructure; thick-metal surface micromachining technology; CMOS integrated circuits; CMOS technology; Integrated circuit technology; MMICs; Micromachining; Microstructure; Microwave integrated circuits; Microwave technology; Radio frequency; Radiofrequency integrated circuits;
Journal_Title :
Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TMTT.2002.806511