Micromachined Silicon-Core Substrate-Integrated Waveguides with Coplanar-Probe Transitions at 220–330GHz

In this paper, we present for the first time on, to the best of our knowledge, the first silicon-core micromachined substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) in the 220–325 GHz frequency range. In contrast to the fabrication methods used for conventional SIW known from substantially lower frequencies, micromachining allows for a full-height waveguide and near-ideal and arbitrarily shaped sidewalls. The silicon dielectric core allows for downscaling the waveguide and components by a factor of 3.4 as compared to an air-filled waveguide. At 330 GHz, the measured waveguide insertion loss is as low as 0.43 dB/mm (0.14 dB/λg, normalized to the guided wavelength). Devices were manufactured using a two-mask micromachining process. Furthermore, a low-loss ultra-wideband coplanar-waveguide (CPW) transition was successfully implemented, which comprises the very first CPW-to-SIW transitions in this frequency range. The measured transition performance is better than 0.5 dB insertion loss (average of 0.43 dB in the band above 15% above the waveguide-cutoff frequency), which is lower than previously reported CPW-to-SIW transitions even at 3 times lower frequencies, and the return loss is better than 14 dB for 75% of the waveguide band.