Three dimensional metal micromachining: A disruptive technology for millimeter-wave filters

The development of silicon based integrated circuits has reached a point where a large portion of an RF system can be integrated onto a single die. However, to create complete RF/millimeter-wave systems, it is necessary to integrate this silicon die with several high performance passive components. Specifically, silicon integrated circuits tend to have limited performance for the design of transmission lines, filters, and antennas. The Polystrata process is a three dimensional metal micromachining process that addresses these weaknesses by providing monolithic fabrication of high performance passives. When applied to filters and upper microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies, metal micromachining can provide filter performance comparable with that of waveguide technology but 10-100× smaller. In this presentation, we will provide details of the Polystrata process, and show the performance that can be achieved with filters fabricated using this technology.