A Novel Laser-Assisted Fabrication Process for Nanowired Substrate Integrated Devices

This paper presents an innovative method to synthesize nanowire-based microwave devices integrated inside a nanoporous alumina membrane. A laser treatment is used to destroy locally the template surface porosity, preventing the nanowire growth in the modified regions. We have realized a substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) in which the vertical walls consist of nanowire arrays. The waveguide can then be modified to achieve different types of microwave devices by properly placing nanowire arrays inside the SIW. The so-obtained devices combine the advantages of nanowire arrays (compactness, tunable permittivity and permeability, ...) with those of substrate integrated waveguides (low losses). Our fabrication approach enables wide range of devices and we present promising results for integrated waveguide isolators.