Novel Slow-wave Structure using Bond-Wire for Miniaturizing Microwave Devices

In this paper, we propose a high density slow-wave structure using bond-wire. The proposed slow-wave structure consists of a periodic array of a highly inductive section using bond-wire and a capacitive section of large metal island. The conformal shape of bond-wire offers high inductance and high density properties without the quality factor degradation for the slow-wave application. Because wire-bonding process has low tolerance, bond-wire can be used to manufacture. The optimum implementations of the bond-wire and the metal island for the inductive and capacitive sections of slow-wave structures show 160% larger slow-wave factor than normal slow-wave structures. The high slow-wave factor could be used to greatly reduce the microwave device sizes.