Very high-Q inductors using RF-MEMS technology for System-On-Package wireless communication integrated module

We present the fabrication and the characterization of very high-Q suspended RF-MEMS inductors for RF applications in C-band, X-band and Ku-band. The fabrication technique relies on conventional MEMS micro-machining on a low cost ceramic RF substrate. This low temperature, low cost manufacturing technique is therefore compatible with the fabrication of a complete S-O-P wireless integrated module. A physical based model of the inductors is presented. It takes into account the influence of substrate losses and radiation losses. The fabricated devices exhibit very high performances such as Q above 100 and self-resonance frequency as high as 50 GHz.