Structuring of sapphire by laser-assisted methods, ion-beam implantation, and chemical wet etching

Sapphire is an attractive material for micro- and opto-electronic systems applications because of its excellent mechanical and chemical properties. However, because of its hardness, sapphire is difficult to machine. Titanium-doped sapphire is a well-known broadly tunable and short-pulse laser material and a promising broadband light source for applications in low-coherence interferometry. We investigated several methods to fabricate rib structures in sapphire that can induce channel waveguiding in Ti:sapphire planar waveguides. These methods include direct laser ablation, laser-micromachined polyimide stripes, selective reactive ion etching, and ion-beam implantation followed by chemical wet etching. Depending on the method, we fabricated channels with depths of up to 1.5 µm. We will discuss and compare these methods. Reactive ion etching through laser-structured polyimide contact-masks has so far provided the best results in terms of etching speed and roughness of the etched structures

RF-MEMS Switched Varactors for Medium Power Applications

In RF (Radio Frequency) domain, one of the limitations of using MEMS (Micro Electromechanical Systems) switching devices for medium power applications is RF power. Failure phenomena appear even for 500 mW. A design of MEMS switched capacitors with an enhanced topology is presented in this paper to prevent it. This kind of device and its promising performances will serve to fabricate a MEMS based phase shifter able to work under several watts.Comment: Submitted on behalf of EDA Publishing Association (http://irevues.inist.fr/handle/2042/16838

Sapphire planar waveguides fabricated by H+ ion beam implantation

1.1-MeV proton-implanted sapphire waveguides are investigated for the first time. Optical measurements show that the planar waveguides support low-order transverse-mode propagation with good guiding properties without the need to anneal the samples

Proton implanted sapphire planar and channel waveguides

We report low-order transverse-mode planar waveguides in sapphire fabricated for the first time by proton implantation. The waveguides show good guiding properties without post-implantation annealing. Channel waveguiding was achieved by polyimide strip-loading

Reconfigurable multi-slot antenna for bio-medical applications

© 2016 European Association of Antennas and Propagation. We present a polarization- reconfigurable multislot antenna with four switchable linear polarizations (as 0°, ± 45° and 90°) for implant communications. The design is based on four bow-tie shaped slots acting as radiators etched on a circular metallization plane with 45° rotated sequential arrangements. RF switches based on PIN diodes are connected across each slot in order to modify the radiators polarization. We apply a differential source to feed the slot antenna through a ground-tapered Balun. In order to obtain a broadside radiation pattern, a reflector is placed at the quarter-wave distance below the radiator. Measured results are showing that the realized multi-slot antenna can generate four switchable linear polarization states with wide bandwidth and stable gain. This polarization diversity feature makes the proposed antenna highly attractive for implant and body-centric wireless communication systems for minimizing the multi-path distortion and polarization mismatching in the wireless channels

A study on controllable aluminium doped zinc oxide patterning by chemical etching for MEMS application

This present work reports on the study of controllable aluminium doped zinc oxide (AZO) patterning by chemical etching for MEMS application. The AZO thin film was prepared by RF magnetron sputtering as it is capable of producing uniform thin film at high deposition rates. X-Ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) characterization were done to characterize AZO thin film. The sputtered AZO thin film shows c-axis (002) orientation, low surface roughness and high crystalline quality. To pattern AZO thin film for MEMS application, wet etching was chosen due to its ease of processing with few controlling parameters. Four etching solutions were used namely: 10 % Nitric acid, 10 % Phosphoric acid, 10 % Acetic acid and Molybdenum etch solutions. For the first time, chemical etching using Molybdenum etch that consist of a mixture of CH3COOH, HNO3 and H3PO4 was characterized and reported. The effect of these acidic solutions on the undercut etching, vertical and lateral etch rate were studied. The etched AZO were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and stylus profilometer. The investigations showed that the Molybdenum etch has the lowest undercut etching of 7.11 µm, and is highly effective in terms of lateral and vertical etching with an etch ratio of 1.30. Successful fine patterning of AZO thin films was demonstrated at device level on a surface acoustic wave resonator fabricated in 0.35 μm CMOS technology. The AZO thin film acts as the piezoelectric thin film for acoustic wave generation. Patterning of the AZO thin film is necessary for access to measurement probe pads. The working acoustic resonator showed resonance peak at 1.044 GHz at 45.28 dB insertion loss indicating that the proposed Molybdenum etch method does not adversely affect the device’s operating characteristic