Cofiring different dielectric constants inside LTCC for metamaterial applications

Dielectric materials with high dielectric constant contrast (68.7/6.37) are cofired inside low temperature cofired ceramics (LTCC) to demonstrate the capability of this processing technique for various metamaterial applications. Optical measurement shows good compatibility between the two different LTCC materials. By creating stratified-medium-loaded resonators inside electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) structures, bulk material properties of the high/low-dielectric-constant materials are characterized and verified at microwave frequencies to further prove the cofirability. This cofirability of different materials into one entity is the enabling technique for realizing artificial metamaterial substrates and vertically integrated RF front ends.