Micromachined Interfaces for Metrology and Packaging Applications in the Submillimeter-Wave Band

The continued emergence of new terahertz devices has created a need for improved approaches to packaging, integration, and measurement tools for diagnostics and characterization in this portion of the spectrum. Rectangular waveguide has for many years been the primary transmission medium for terahertz and submillimeter-wave systems operating from 300 GHz to 1 THz, with the UG-387 flange the most common interface for mating waveguide components over this frequency range. Alignment of UG-387 flanges is accomplished with pins and alignment holes that are placed around the flange perimeter and, under the standard MIL SPECS tolerances, misalignments of up to 6 mils (150 microns) are possible as a result of practical milling tolerances. With the emergence of vector network analyzers operating beyond 1 THz, such misalignment of waveguide mating flanges is not negligible and is recognized as a fundamental issue limiting calibration and measurement precision at frequencies greater than 300 GHz. In response to this...