Farjana Sadia, Ghaderi Mohamadamir, Rahiminejad Sofia, Haasl Sjoerd, Enoksson Peter
Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience, Chalmers University of Technology, 41258 Göteborg, Sweden.
Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA.
Micromachines (Basel). 2021 Mar 3;12(3):260. doi: 10.3390/mi12030260.
This paper presents a novel fabrication method based on dry film photoresists to realize waveguides and waveguide-based passive components operating at the millimeter-wave frequency (30-300 GHz). We demonstrate that the proposed fabrication method has a high potential as an alternative to other microfabrication technologies, such as silicon-based and SU8-based micromachining for realizing millimeter-wave waveguide components. Along with the nearly identical transfer of geometrical structures, the dry film photoresist offers other advantages such as fewer processing steps, lower production cost, and shorter prototyping time over the conventional micromachining technologies. To demonstrate the feasibility of the fabrication process, we use SUEX dry film to fabricate a ridge gap waveguide resonator. The resonator is designed to exhibit two resonances at 234.6 and 284 GHz. The measured attenuation at 234 GHz is 0.032 dB/mm and at 283 GHz is 0.033 dB/mm for the fabricated prototype. A comparative study among different existing technologies indicates that the reported method can give a better unloaded -value than other conventional processes. The measured unloaded -values are in good agreement with the simulated unloaded -values. The signal attenuation indicates that SUEX dry film photoresists can be used to fabricate passive devices operating at millimeter-wave frequencies. Moreover, this new fabrication method can offer fast and low-cost prototyping.
本文提出了一种基于干膜光刻胶的新型制造方法，以实现工作在毫米波频率（30 - 300 GHz）的波导及基于波导的无源元件。我们证明，所提出的制造方法作为实现毫米波波导元件的其他微加工技术（如基于硅和基于SU8的微加工）的替代方法具有很大潜力。除了几何结构几乎相同的转移外，干膜光刻胶还具有其他优点，如与传统微加工技术相比，加工步骤更少、生产成本更低以及原型制作时间更短。为了证明制造工艺的可行性，我们使用SUEX干膜制造了一个脊形间隙波导谐振器。该谐振器设计为在234.6 GHz和284 GHz处呈现两个谐振。对于制造的原型，在234 GHz处测得的衰减为0.032 dB/mm，在283 GHz处为0.033 dB/mm。不同现有技术之间的比较研究表明，所报道的方法能够比其他传统工艺给出更好的空载品质因数。测得的空载品质因数与模拟的空载品质因数吻合良好。信号衰减表明SUEX干膜光刻胶可用于制造工作在毫米波频率的无源器件。此外，这种新的制造方法能够提供快速且低成本的原型制作。
