Measurement of Silicon Micromachined Waveguide Components at 500–750 GHz

Abstract

This paper presents techniques used to assemble and measure micromachined submillimeter-wave waveguide circuits operating from 500 to 750 GHz. A novel micromechanical compression pin is developed to improve wafer-to-wafer alignment to less than 1 μm. Connection between the silicon waveguide and the VNA is aligned through a silicon boss that inserts into the custom waveguide flange. Waveguide loss is characterized for both E- and H-plane split waveguides and is found to be similar to standard metal waveguides. Finally, measurement of a 3 dB hybrid coupler operating from 500 to 600 GHz is presented.