Fabrication of thick silicon nitride blocks embedded in low-resistivity silicon substrates for radio frequency applications

Fernandez, L.J. and Berenschot, J.W. and Wiegerink, R.J. and Flokstra, J. and Jansen, H.V. and Elwenspoek, M.C. (2006) Fabrication of thick silicon nitride blocks embedded in low-resistivity silicon substrates for radio frequency applications. Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering, 16 (4). pp. 862-868. ISSN 0960-1317

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Abstract:	Thick silicon nitride blocks embedded in silicon wafers were recently proposed as a substrate for RF devices. In this paper we show that deep trenches filled with silicon nitride—having thin slices of monocrystalline silicon in between—already result in a significantly improved RF behavior. Measurement results are presented on RF coplanar waveguides using solid silicon nitride blocks and silicon nitride filled trenches with various dimensions and orientations with respect to the transmission line. A clear difference exists between trenches parallel and perpendicular to the transmission line due to the different associated loss mechanisms. S-parameter measurements on the coplanar waveguides show an improvement of the transmission losses at 4 GHz from 3.5 dB mm-1 on a standard silicon substrate to 0.7 dB mm-1 on silicon nitride filled trenches and 0.2 dB mm-1 on a solid silicon nitride block. In this way, an RF performance very close to dedicated glass substrates such as AF45 is obtained (with transmission losses of 0.1 dB mm-1 at 4 GHz).
Item Type:	Article
Copyright:	© 2006 Institute of Physics and IOP Publishing Limited
Faculty:	Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) Science and Technology (TNW)
Research Group:	Transducers Science and Technology (TST)
Link to this item:	http://purl.utwente.nl/publications/57971
Official URL:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0960-1317/16/4/024
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