RF and non-linearity characterization of porous silicon layer for RF-ICs

Nanostructured porous silicon is very promising for RF applications by overcoming the high-frequency losses originating from the bulk silicon substrate. RF performance and non-linearity analysis of different silicon substrates including, porous (PSi), trap-rich (TR) high resistivity (HR) types are explored experimentally. The investigation is done by means of coplanar transmission lines (CPW) fabricated on these substrates. RF measurements of transmission lines demonstrate the successful reduction of the permittivity and increase of the resistivity of the PSi substrate. It also demonstrated that the insertion losses and linearity are efficiently enhanced.