Wireless communication has led to an explosive growth of emerging consumer and military applications of radio frequency (RF), microwave and millimeter wave circuits and systems. Future personal (hand-held) and ground communications systems as well as communications satellites necessitate the use of highly integrated RF front-ends, featuring small size, low weight, high performance and low cost. Continuing chip scaling has contributed to the extent that off-chip, bulky passive RF components, such as high-Q inductors, ceramic and SAW filters, varactor diodes and discrete PIN diode switches, have become limiting. Micro-machining or MEMS technology is now rapidly emerging as an enabling technology to yield a new generation of high-performance RF-MEMS passives to replace these off-chip passives in wireless communication (sub)systems. This paper reviews the progress in RF-MEMS from a device and integration perspective. The worldwide state-of-the-art of RF-MEMS devices including switches, variable capacitors, resonators and filters are described. Next, it is stipulated how integration of RF-MEMS passives with other passives (as inductors, LC filters, SAW devices, couplers and power dividers) and, active circuitry (ASICs, RFICs) can lead to the so-called RF-MEMS system-in-a-package (RF-MEMS-SiP) modules. The evolution of the RF-MEMS-SiP technology is illustrated using IMEC's microwave multi-layer thin-film MCM-D technology which today already serves as a technology platform for RF-SiP.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0960-1317/13/4/323/pdf

MEMS for wireless communications: 'from RF-MEMS components to RF-MEMS-SiP'

Although MEMS technologies and device structures have made significant progress in the past three decades and have found widespread application in many areas, including Micro-Opto-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MOEMS), packaging and assembly techniques suitable for many of these emerging applications have not kept pace. Packaging is one of the most costly parts of microsystem manufacturing, and it is also often the first to fail or negatively influence the system response. This paper addresses the packaging and assembly challenges of microsystems and MEMS for different applications. Hermetic and vacuum micropackaging, wafer-level packaging and bonding, and miniature sealed interconnection and feedthrough technologies will be reviewed. Results from long-term accelerated testing, and from in-situ tests, especially in biological hosts, will also be discussed. Issues and challenges facing packaging of MOEMS will be discussed.

Micropackaging technologies for integrated microsystems: applications to MEMS and MOEMS

An interconnect module and a method of manufacturing the same. The method of making an interconnect module on a substrate comprises forming an interconnect section on the substrate. The interconnect section comprises at least two metal interconnect layers separated by a dielectric layer. The method further comprises forming a passive device on the substrate at a location laterally adjacent to the interconnect section. The passive device comprises at least one moveable element comprising a metal layer. The method further comprises forming the metal layer and one of the at least two metal interconnect layers from substantially the same material.

/pdf/method-and-system-for-fabrication-of-integrated-tunable-3ekld9ocnk.pdf

Method and system for fabrication of integrated tunable/switchable passive microwave and millimeter wave modules

This paper reports on the hermeticity testing of MEMS cavities using BCB as the sealing and bonding material. Hermeticity has been tested according to the MIL-STD-883D. Gross leak testing based on liquid fluorocarbons revealed that BCB sealed cavities are leak tight, which means that the MEMS devices are well protected during handling and back-end processing (e.g., wafer dicing). Further, it is shown that the He fine leak testing of the MIL-STD is not fully applicable to small volumes ( 10,000 nl) cavities are needed to cover the entire leakage spectrum.

Investigation of the hermeticity of BCB-sealed cavities for housing (RF-)MEMS devices

Wideband 100 kHz–4 GHz power sensors are presented, which are based on sensing the electrostatic force between an RF signal line and a suspended membrane. The electrostatic force, which is proportional to the square of the rms signal voltage and thus to the signal power, results in a displacement of the suspended membrane. This displacement is detected capacitively, allowing the sensing of the signal power with extremely low dissipative losses; therefore the sensor can be placed in a transmission line with negligible disturbance of the signal. Devices have been designed and fabricated successfully by aluminum surface micromachining using photoresist as the sacrificial layer. Optimization of the design with SONNET has resulted in measured return and insertion losses (S11 and S21) better than -30 dB and -0.15 dB, respectively, up to 4 GHz, and a sensitivity of 90 aF mW-1.

/pdf/a-capacitive-rf-power-sensor-based-on-mems-technology-3xe4ha48ti.pdf

A capacitive RF power sensor based on MEMS technology

Reports on wafer-level packaged RF-MEMS switches fabricated in a commercial CMOS fab. Switch fabrication is based on a metal surface micromachining process. A novel wafer-level packaging scheme is developed, whereby the switches are housed in on-chip sealed cavities using benzocyclobutene (BCB) as the bonding and sealing material. Measurements show that the influence of the wafer-level package on the RF performance can be made very small.

Wafer-level packaged RF-MEMS switches fabricated in a CMOS fab

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Wafer-level packaged RF-MEMS switches fabricated in a CMOS fab