Title :
A novel RF MEMS technological platform
Author :
Fritschi, Raphael ; Dehollain, Catherine ; Declercq, Michel J. ; Ionescu, Adrian M. ; Hibert, Cyrille ; Fluckiger, Philippe ; Renaud, Philippe
Author_Institution :
Electron. Lab., Swiss Fed. Inst. of Technol., Lausanne, Switzerland
Abstract :
A novel MEMS technological platform for RF passive components, namely RF MEMS switches, tuneable capacitors and high-Q suspended inductors, is reported. The proposed process employs a metal (Al, AlSi or Cu) as active movable layer and amorphous silicon or polycrystalline silicon as sacrificial layers, providing multi-air-gaps. Various types of substrates like bulk silicon and SOI can be used. Full-dry releasing of suspended beams and membranes is performed with SF6 or XeF2, with unrivalled yield/reproducibility compared with any other wet etching techniques. The platform is used to validate new MEMS architectures and concepts, such as the suspended-gate MOSFET that can serve as both RF capacitive switches and tuneable RF capacitors.
Keywords :
MOSFET; aluminium; aluminium alloys; amorphous semiconductors; capacitors; copper; elemental semiconductors; field effect transistor switches; inductors; microswitches; silicon; silicon alloys; substrates; Al; AlSi; Cu; RF MEMS switches; RF MEMS technological platform; RF capacitive switches; RF passive components; SF6; SOI; Si; XeF2; active movable layer; amorphous silicon; high-Q suspended inductors; membranes; multi-air-gaps; polycrystalline silicon; sacrificial layers; substrates; suspended beams; suspended-gate MOSFET; tuneable RF capacitors; tuneable capacitors; Amorphous silicon; Biomembranes; Capacitors; Inductors; Micromechanical devices; Radio frequency; Radiofrequency microelectromechanical systems; Reproducibility of results; Switches; Wet etching;
Conference_Titel :
IECON 02 [Industrial Electronics Society, IEEE 2002 28th Annual Conference of the]
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-7474-6
DOI :
10.1109/IECON.2002.1182883
