Membrane Supported Transmission Lines and Filters

The membrane supported device is attractive because of its capability to realize low loss components at millimeter and sub-millimeter wave frequencies on traditional semiconductor substrates. This is done by eliminating a large portion of the dielectric substrate and suspending the circuit area. This paper presents results of membrane supported transmission lines and Ka-band filters on silicon substrates. The fabrication is enabled by bulk micromachining of the silicon. Two types of filters are designed, one based on a coplanar-waveguide, and the other on microstrip resonators.