Through-silicon via technologies for interconnects in RF MEMS

Various holes in through-silicon via (TSV) technologies are analyzed and realized by Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) process. Using TSV technologies as grounding connections, a Ku band miniature bandpass filter is designed and fabricated. Measured results show an insertion loss of 1.9dB and a bandwidth of 20%. The chip size is 9.6mm×mm. Using it as interconnections for 3-dimentional millimeter-wave integrated circuits, a silicon micromachined vertical transition with three layers is presented. TSV,alignment,bonding and wafer thinning technologies are used to fabricate the sample. After measurement it exhibits an insertion loss of less than 3.5dB from 26.5GHz to 34GHz and an amplitude variation of less than 2 dB. The total size of the chip is 6.3mm×3.2mm.