LOW-LOSS SILICON-ON-QUARTZ (SOQ)-BASED APERTURE-COUPLED ANTENNA ON RF MEMS PACKAGING PLATFORM

摘要

This letter presents a micromachined aperture-coupled antenna which improves antenna performances as well as simplifies a fabrication process. The SoQ (silicon-on-quartz) bonding and BCB (benzocyclobutene) adhesive bonding are employed for a radio frequency microelectro-mechanical system (RF-MEMS) packaging platform. The SoQ/BCB packaging platform makes the air cavity and the quartz substrate where the aperture-coupled antenna is stacked. Therefore, radiation performances can be enhanced from low-loss air/quartz substrates while a silicon substrate has almost no effects on radiation. Furthermore, the proposed method enables simultaneous integration of the antenna with the RF MEMS devices through a single packaging process. In this letter, the antenna is manufactured based on the proposed method and the fabrication process is carefully described. The s-parameters and shear strength are measured to evaluate both of antenna and packaging performances.