Challenges and Solutions for Cost-effective RF-MEMS Packaging

Morris, Arthur S.; Cunningham, Shawn

doi:10.1109/iemt.2007.4417077

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…However, these techniques require extensive post-processing, and complicated protection techniques for various parts of the chip at different stages of the fabrication process. Furthermore, the resulting MEMS devices always have exposed moving surfaces, requiring hermetic sealing together with specialized and costly packaging to avoid device performance degradation with time and to shield them from the surrounding environment [4]- [6].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Theory and Design of Phononic Crystals for Unreleased CMOS-MEMS Resonant Body Transistors

Bahr

Marathe

Weinstein

2015

J. Microelectromech. Syst.

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Resonant body transistors (RBTs) are solid state, actively sensed microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) resonators that can be implemented in commercial CMOS technologies. With small footprint, high-Q, and scalability to gigahertz frequencies, they form basic building blocks for radio frequency (RF) front-ends and timing applications. Toward the goal of seamless CMOS integration, this paper presents the design and implementation of phononic crystals (PnCs) in the back-end-ofline (BEOL) of commercial CMOS technologies with bandgaps in the gigahertz frequencies to be used for enhanced acoustical confinement in CMOS-RBTs. Lithographically defined PnC dimensions allow for bandgap engineering, providing flexibility in resonator design, and allowing for multiple frequencies on a single chip. The theoretical basis for analyzing generic PnCs is presented, with focus on the special case of implementing PnCs in CMOS BEOL layers. The effect of CMOS process variations on the performance of such PnCs is also considered. The analysis presented in this paper establishes a methodology for assessing different CMOS technologies for the integration of unreleased CMOS-MEMS resonators. This paper also discusses the importance of uniformity of the acoustical cavity in the nonresonant dimension and its effect on overall resonator performance. A PnC implementation in IBM 32-nm silicon on insulator (SOI) BEOL layers is demonstrated to achieve 85% fractional-bandgap ∼4.5-GHz frequency. With better energy confinement, the proposed CMOS-RBTs achieve a quality factor Q of 252, which corresponds to 8× improvement over the previous generation RBTs, which did not include PnCs. The presented devices have a footprint of 5 μm × 7 μm. This paper concludes with a discussion of the properties required of a CMOS technology for high performance RBT implementation.[2014-0364] IndexTerms-CMOS-microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), radio frequenty (RF) MEMS, resonators, resonant body transistor (RBT), phononic crystals.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Theory and Design of Phononic Crystals for Unreleased CMOS-MEMS Resonant Body Transistors

Bahr

Marathe

Weinstein

2015

J. Microelectromech. Syst.

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“…Flip-chip processing is increasingly used in the wireless industry as the number of I/O's and RF intermodulation/isolation requirements increase [8]. This particular WLP process provides the low profile required..…”

Section: Sem Cross-section Of Mems / Cmos Vias a Thick Pecvd Oxide Layer Was Deposited And Planarized By Cmpmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated Mems Switch Technology on Soi-Cmos

Costa¹,

Ivanov²,

Hammond³

et al. 2008

2008 Solid-State, Actuators, and Microsystems Workshop Technical Digest

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We describe an RF MEMS contact switch technology that has been integrated above a 0.5um silicon RFCMOS-on-SOI process. This integration strategy combines a MEMS gold cantilever contact-switch with a custom silicon-on-insulator IC platform. This IC platform provides several power management functions critical for MEMS including high voltage generation, control and analog/digital/RF circuits... The technology also includes a waferlevel-package dielectric encapsulation process for the MEMS device which is hermetic and compatible with low cost packaging processes.

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“…Furthermore, it should be preferably fabricated using wafer-level processes to increase the throughput thus decrease the cost. In wafer bonding approaches of wafer-level packaging (WLP), the cost of at least one lid wafer is added to the total production cost [9]. These additional lid wafers can also add more process steps such as wafer grinding or chemical mechanical polishing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Electromagnetic and small-signal modeling of an encapsulated RF-MEMS switch for D-band applications

Wipf

Göritz

Wietstruck

et al. 2017

Int. J. Microw. Wireless Technol.

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In this work, an electromagnetic (EM) model and a small-signal (lumped-element) model of a wafer-level encapsulated (WLE) radio frequency microelectromechanical systems (RF-MEMS) switch is presented. The EM model of the WLE RF-MEMS switch is developed to estimate its RF performance. After the fabrication of the switch, the EM model is used to get accurate S-parameter simulation results. Alternative to the EM model, a small-signal model of the fabricated WLE RF-MEMS switch is developed. The developed model is integrated into a 0.13 µm SiGe BiCMOS process technology design kit for fast simulations and to predict the RF performance of the switch from a pure electrical point of view. The 0.13 µm SiGe BiCMOS embedded WLE RF-MEMS shows beyond state-of-the-art measured RF performances in D-band (110–170 GHz) and provides a high capacitance Con/Coffratio of 11.1. The results of the both EM model and small-signal model of the switch are in very good agreement with the S-parameter measurements in D-band. The measured maximum isolation of the WLE RF-MEMS switch is 51.6 dB at 142.8 GHz with an insertion loss of 0.65 dB.

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Challenges and Solutions for Cost-effective RF-MEMS Packaging

Cited by 7 publications

References 23 publications

Theory and Design of Phononic Crystals for Unreleased CMOS-MEMS Resonant Body Transistors

Theory and Design of Phononic Crystals for Unreleased CMOS-MEMS Resonant Body Transistors

Integrated Mems Switch Technology on Soi-Cmos

Electromagnetic and small-signal modeling of an encapsulated RF-MEMS switch for D-band applications

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