Fabrication techniques and RF performances of transmission lines on polymer substrates

Abstract

The advantages of polymers have made them popular choices in many micro device applications. The benefits of low material and fabrication costs have been demonstrated in many micro-fluidic devices. The low conductivities and low dielectric constants of polymers provide potentials for high quality-factor RF MEMS applications. Nevertheless, the extension of using polymers for electronic components has not been well explored. In this work, we investigated the fabrication processes and RF performances of coplanar waveguide (CPW) transmission lines, with which many RF MEMS phase shifters, tuners, switches and interconnects are built, on polymer dielectric layers. In order to achieve optimum results, the CPW transmission lines were fabricated on benzocyclobutene (BCB), kapton and polyimide polymers. Our experimental results indicated very low insertion losses of CPW transmission lines with BCB as a dielectric layer and with kapton as substrate, and a moderate insertion loss with polyimide as a dielectric layer.