• ETRI Journal
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.802-805
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• 2011

This letter presents a K-band polarization reconfigurable antenna integrated with a silicon radio frequency MEMS switch into the form of a compact package. The proposed antenna can change its state from linear polarization (LP) to circular polarization (CP) by actuating the MEMS switch, which controls the configuration of the coupling ring slot. Low-loss quartz is used for a radiating patch substrate and at the same time for a packaging lid by stacking it onto the MEMS substrate, which can increase the system integrity. The fabricated antenna shows broadband impedance matching and exhibits high axial ratios better than 15 dB in the LP and small axial ratios in the CP, with a minimum value of 0.002 dB at 20.8 GHz in the K-band.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.271-277
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• 2002

In this paper, a MEMS silicon package is newly designed, fabricated for HMIC, and characterized for microwave and millimeter-wave device applications. The proposed package is fabricated by using two high resistivity silicon substrates and surface/bulk micromachining technology. It has a good performance characteristic such as -20㏈ of $S_11$/ and -0.3㏈ of $S_21$ up to 20㎓, which is useful in microwave region. It has also better heat transfer characteristics than the commonly used ceramic package. Since the proposed silicon MEMS package is easy to fabricate and wafer level chip scale packaging is also possible, the production cost can be much lower than the ceramic package. Since it will be a promising low-cost package for mobile/wireless applications.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.287-290
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• 2015

Liquid crystal polymer (LCP) is a thermoplastic polymer with superior mechanical and thermal properties. In addition, its characteristics include very low water absorption rate and possibility to apply bonding process under low temperature. In this study, LCP is utilized as a packaging material for a microelectronic system (MEMS) based safety device with suggestion of a low temperature packaging process. Highly sensitive and stable capacitive type humidity sensor is fabricated to investigate hermeticity of the packaged MEMS device.

• Proceedings of the International Microelectronics And Packaging Society Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.115-134
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• 2003

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.12 no.3 s.36
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• pp.187-196
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• 2005

MEMS devices such as a vibratory gyroscope often suffer from a lower yield rate due to fabrication errors and the external stress. In the decoupled vibratory gyroscope, the main factor that determines the yield rate is the frequency difference between the sensing and driving modes. The gyroscope, fabricated with SOI (Silicon-On-Insulator) wafer and packaged using the anodic bonding, has a large wafer bowing caused by thermal expansion mismatch as well as non-uniform surfaces of the structures caused by the notching effect. These effects result in large distribution in the frequency difference, and thereby a lower yield rate. To improve the yield rate we propose a packaged SiOG (Silicon On Glass) technology. It uses a silicon wafer and two glass wafers to minimize the wafer bowing and a metallic membrane to avoid the notching. In the packaged SiOG gyroscope, the notching effect is eliminated and the warpage of the wafer is greatly reduced. Consequently the frequency difference is more uniformly distributed and its variation is greatly improved. Therefore we can achieve a more robust vibratory MEMS gyroscope with a higher yield rate.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.23-28
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• 2009

We investigated the wafer-level MEMS capping process for which cavity formation in Si wafer was not required. Ni caps were formed by electrodeposition on 4" Si wafer and Ni rims of the Ni caps were bonded to the Cu rims of bottom Si wafer by using epoxy. Then, top Si wafer was debonded from the Ni cap structures by using SnBi layer of low melting temperature. As-evaporated SnBi layer was composed of double layers of Bi and Sn due to the large difference in vapor pressures of Bi and Sn. With keeping the as-evaporated SnBi layer at $150^{\circ}C$ for more than 15 sec, SnBi alloy composed of eutectic phase and Bi-rich $\beta$ phase was formed by interdiffusion of Sn and Bi. Debonding between top Si wafer and Ni cap structures was accomplished by melting of the SnBi layer at $150^{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the International Microelectronics And Packaging Society Conference
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• 2005.09a
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• pp.249-272
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• 2005

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.15-19
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• 2002

A new vacuum packaging process in wafer level is developed for the surface micromachining devices using glass silicon anodic bonding technology. The inside pressure of the packaged device was measured indirectly by the quality factor of the mechanical resonator. The measured Q factor was about 5$\times10^4$ and the estimated inner pressure was about 1 mTorr. And it is also possible to change the inside pressure of the packaged devices from 2 Torr to 1 mTorr by varying the amount of the Ti gettering material. The long-term stability test is still on the way, but in initial characterization, the yield is about 80% and the vacuum degradation with time was not observed.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.15-21
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• 2013

In this paper, a MEMS tunable capacitor was successfully designed and fabricated using an aluminum nitride film and a gold suspended membrane with two air gap structure for commercial RF applications. Unlike conventional two-parallel-plate tunable capacitors, the proposed tunable capacitor consists of one air suspended top electrode and two fixed bottom electrodes. One fixed and the top movable electrodes form a variable capacitor, while the other one provides necessary electrostatic actuation. The fabricated tunable capacitor exhibited a capacitance tuning range of 375% at 2 GHz, exceeding the theoretical limit of conventional two-parallel-plate tunable capacitors. In case of the contact state, the maximal quality factor was approximately 25 at 1.5 GHz. The developed fabrication process is also compatible with the existing standard IC (integrated circuit) technology, which makes it suitable for on chip intelligent transceivers and radios.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.435-442
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• 2004

This paper presents a hermetic MEMS on-chip package bonded by a closed-loop AuSn solder-line. We design three different package specimens, including a substrate heated specimen without interconnection-line (SHX), a substrate heated specimen with interconnection-line (SHI) and a locally heated specimen with interconnection-line (LHI). Pressurized helium leak test has been carried out for hermetic seal evaluation in addition to the critical pressure test for bonding strength measurement. Substrate heating method (SHX, SHI) requires the bonding time of 40min. at 400min, while local heating method (LHI) requires 4 min. at the heating power of 6.76W. In the hermetic seal test. SHX, SHI and LHI show the leak rates of 5.4$\pm$6.7${\times}$$^{-10}$ mbar-l/s, 13.5$\pm$9.8${\times}$$^{-10}$ mbar-l/s and 18.5$\pm$9.9${\times}$$^{-10}$ mbar-l/s, respectively, for an identical package chamber volume of 6.89$\pm$0.2${\times}$$^{-10}$. In the critical pressure test, no fracture is found in the bonded specimens up to the applied pressure of 1$\pm$0.1MPa, resulting in the minimum bonding strength of 3.53$\pm$0.07MPa. We find that the present on-chip packaging using a closed AuSn solder-line shows strong potential for hermetic MEMS packaging with interconnection-line due to the hermetic seal performance and the shorter bonding time for mass production.