Add-on Components for Cheap Thick Film Microwave Circuits

摘要

The feasibility of (1) surface mounted circulators for cheap microwave integrated circuits, and (2) hybrid microwave integrated circuit thin film cut-off filters for thick film circuits, was investigated. Two ways of making a surface mounted circulator by adding ferrite to the surface of a thick film circuit in order to avoid any machining of the substrate were studied. While performance results for a disk circulator, demonstrated in the laboratory, are encouraging, attempts to produce a lumped element circulator failed. For the other component, a filter, a technique of implanting this component on otherwise completed thick film substrates, allowing the use of high definition components at minimal cost, was sought. A process for the transfer of thin film component patterns from a carrier to the main substrate is defined. The performance of a stop-band filter transferred into thick film and copper laminate circuits is satisfactorily compared with wholly thin film constructed components.