Silicon high-resistivity-substrate millimeter-wave technology

The application of molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and X-ray lithography for the fabrication of monolithic integrated millimeter-wave devices on high-resistivity silicon has been investigated. Process compatibility and the retention of high-resistivity characteristics were measured using the spreading resistance method and Hall measurements after various process steps. Microstrip resonators of ring and linear geometry were fabricated on 10 000 Ω.cm silicon substrates. For linear microstrip resonators, the attenuation was found to be less than 0.6 dB/cm at 90 GHz. A 95-GHz IMPATT oscillator circuit and a planar microstrip antenna array have been fabricated on highly insulating silicon substrates. For the oscillator, a combined monolithic-hybrid integration technique was used to attach the discrete IMPATT diode to the resonator circuit. The oscillator does not require tuning elements. Preliminary experimental results are 8 mW of output power with 0.2 percent efficiency at 95 GHz.