Fabrication and accelerated hermeticity testing of an on-wafer package for RF MEMS

A hermetic silicon micromachined on-wafer dc-to-40-GHz packaging scheme for RF microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) switches is presented. The designed on-wafer package has a deembedded insertion loss of 0.03 dB per transition up to 40 GHz (a total measured loss of 0.3 dB including a 2.7-mm-long th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques 2004-06, Vol.52 (6), p.1626-1636
Main Authors: Margomenos, A., Katehi, L.P.B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Fabrication
Insertion loss
Life estimation
Loss measurement
Micromechanical devices
Packaging
Radiofrequency microelectromechanical systems
Silicon
Switches
Testing
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Summary:A hermetic silicon micromachined on-wafer dc-to-40-GHz packaging scheme for RF microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) switches is presented. The designed on-wafer package has a deembedded insertion loss of 0.03 dB per transition up to 40 GHz (a total measured loss of 0.3 dB including a 2.7-mm-long through line) and a return loss below -18dB up to 40 GHz. The hermeticity of the packaged is tested using an autoclave chamber with accelerated conditions of 130/spl deg/C, 2.7 atm of pressure, and 100% relative humidity. The fabrication process is designed so as to be completely compatible with the MEMS switch process, hence, allowing the parallel fabrication of all the components on a single wafer. The on-wafer proposed packaging approach requires no external wiring to achieve signal propagation and, thus, it has the potential for lower loss and better performance at higher frequencies.
ISSN:0018-9480
1557-9670
DOI:10.1109/TMTT.2004.828467