Membrane supported endfire antennas manufactured using silicon micromachining

The use of micromachining techniques has as its main effect the substantial reduction of losses in the millimeter wave range due to the substrate removal. For various applications, the Yagi-Uda topology, which is composed of one reflector, one driver element and one or more directors, is very interesting as it exhibits attractive properties in term of radiation pattern and gain. A solution for manufacturing these types of antennae for applications in the millimeter and sub-millimeter frequency range is given by silicon micromachining technologies. Our original technological process is based on a dry followed by wet backside etching process. This process has permitted us to obtain "quasi-three edges" membrane supported antennae structures which assure free space radiation behavior. High performance Yagi-Uda membrane supported antennas were manufactured. Our newly developed technological process insures the topology requirements for free space propagation for this endfire antenna. This topology can be used to fabricate emitting/receiving front-ends for smart microsystems in the millimeter wave range and above.