Measurement of Silicon Micromachined Waveguide Components at 500–750 GHz

Author

Reck, Theodore J. ; Jung-Kubiak, Cecile ; Gill, Jaswinder ; Chattopadhyay, Goutam

Author_Institution

Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA

Volume

4

Issue

1

fYear

2014

fDate

Jan. 2014

Firstpage

33

Lastpage

38

Abstract

This paper presents techniques used to assemble and measure micromachined submillimeter-wave waveguide circuits operating from 500 to 750 GHz. A novel micromechanical compression pin is developed to improve wafer-to-wafer alignment to less than 1 μm. Connection between the silicon waveguide and the VNA is aligned through a silicon boss that inserts into the custom waveguide flange. Waveguide loss is characterized for both E- and H-plane split waveguides and is found to be similar to standard metal waveguides. Finally, measurement of a 3 dB hybrid coupler operating from 500 to 600 GHz is presented.

Keywords

elemental semiconductors; micromachining; micromechanical devices; silicon; submillimetre wave couplers; waveguides; E-plane split waveguide; H-plane split waveguide; VNA; frequency 500 GHz to 750 GHz; hybrid coupler; micromachined submillimeter-wave waveguide circuits; micromechanical compression pin; silicon boss; silicon micromachined waveguide component; standard metal waveguides; wafer-to-wafer alignment; waveguide flange; waveguide loss; Couplers; Loss measurement; Metals; Pins; Silicon; Waveguide components; Waveguide discontinuities; Rectangular waveguide; silicon micromachining; submillimeter-wave; terahertz (THz) frequencies;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Terahertz Science and Technology, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

2156-342X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TTHZ.2013.2282534

Filename

6617668