Novel Micromachined Structures and Components for Future RF Silicon Technology (DMF.5051)

Integration of the radio-frequency transceiver - used in wireless communication technology - onto a single silicon chip, is highly desirable as Si-technology has clear advantages in high-volume, low-cost manufacturing. Difficulties come e.g. from the conductivity of the Si-substrate, adding RF-losses and crosstalk, prohibiting the extension beyond 3 GHz, even for high ohmic Si. Si-micromachining(bulk- and surface, Si-on-anything substrate transfer concepts, high-aspect-ratio structures) form a set of techniques to overcome such limitations. It is the purpose of this project to explore Si-micromachining for application in integrated RF- systems. Focuspoints:

1. impact of the mentioned substrate losses on the quality of integrated components. Spiral inductors will be used for that purpose.
2. developing a novel Si-integration process, that provides a signal metal line on the frontside of the chip and a metal ground plane at an optimum position beneath the wafer surface and with a frontside contact. The process will also be applicable to low-loss integrated antenna structures.
3. surface micromachining to fabricate RF-switches and other electromechanical structures at the chip surface. It is expected that those will be less prone to the substrate losses as the conventional device structures nowadays built in the Si-substrate.
4. carry out a `top-down' circuit design study of basic RF-building blocks to investigate whether or not the micromachining technique is indispensible for high frequency RF-components (< 20 GHz; 17 GHz is presently the practical limit of "state of the art" Si-devices).

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