A dedicated micromachining technology for high-aspect-ratio millimetre-wave circuits

Abstract This paper presents a new technological process to implement efficient millimetre-wave passive circuits on a silicon substrate. This process associates a thick positive photoresist acting as a mould for the realization of thick conductors (several microns) with an ultra-thin dielectric membrane using only two layers (SiO 2 /Si 2 N 3.8 ) in order to reduce both dielectric and ohmic losses in the coplanar millimetre-wave circuits. Coplanar transmission lines and a band-pass filter in the 30 GHz range, featuring respectively transmission losses lower than 0.2 and 1 dB, illustrate some potentialities of this process.