Heterogene integratie op chips

RF-MEMS

Invent - RF-MEMS is a disruptive technology, commonly seen as key for future telecommunication systems. It may overcome several of the trade-offs in today's wireless communication. Imec's RF-MEMS technology is based on fabricating small, low-weight and high-performance RF components, including switches, varicaps, resonators and (tunable/switchable) filters. Two main directions are explored:

• Metal RF-MEMS passive technology platforms for building switches, inductors, capacitors, power splitters, and varicaps integrated with regular passive components such as transmission lines.
• Silicon or SiGe-based technologies for building relays, high-Q resonators, and filters.

Achieve - In 2008, imec further developed its metal RF-MEMS technology. First, imec's metal thin film RF-MEMS technology was optimized for stability and reliability of capacitive switching devices. A demonstrator RF-MEMS capacitive shunt switch showed remarkable reliability and repeatability.

Second, the electrostatic fringing field actuator (EFFA) technology was further developed, demonstrating its applicability in several areas. This technology is a simple 2-mask process involving only one sacrificial layer and one metallization. In the basic 2-masks EFFA technology, we already demonstrated series and shunt switchable capacitors as well as λ/8 phase-shifters at 5.25GHz with insertion loss better than 0.6dB. In 2008, we designed, realized, and characterized a λ/8 phase shifter for a 60GHz application.