Air bridge based planar hybrid technology for microwave and millimeterwave applications

A new silicon based, planar hybrid technology is being developed to address limitations associated with packaging and interconnections. The approach combines the advantages of both hybrid and monolithic technologies. Microwave transistor chips (GaAs FETs) are integrated in high resistivity silicon substrates with a vertical precision of better than 2 /spl mu/m and lateral tolerances less than 10 /spl mu/m. Air bridge technology and thin film techniques are then used to provide the necessary interconnections. The basic features of the proposed technology are presented here.