• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 2002

This paper presents high performance MEMS passives using fully CMOS compatible, monolithically integrable 3-D RF MEMS processes for RF and microwave applications. The 3-D RF MEMS technology has been developed and investigated as a viable technological option, which can break the limit of the conventional IC technology. We have demonstrated the versatility of the technology by fabricating various 3-D thick-metal microstructures for RF and microwave applications, such as spiral/solenoid inductors, transformers, and transmission lines, with a vertical dimension of up to $100{\;}\mu\textrm{m}$. To the best of our knowledge, we report that we are the first to construct a fully integrated VCO with MEMS inductors, which has achieved a low phase noise of -124 dBc/Hz at 300 kHz offset from a center frequency of 1 GHz.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.538-544
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• 2011

This paper presents a compact single balanced diode mixer fabricated using a 0.1 ${\mu}M$ GaAs p-HEMT commercial process for an E-band frequency up/down converter. This mixer includes a LO balun employing a Marchand balun with a good RF performance. In order to improve the port-to-port isolation, a high pass filter and a low pass filter are include in this mixer at the RF and IF ports, respectively. The fabricated mixer with a very compact size of 0.58 mm2(0.85 mm${\times}$0.68 mm) exhibits a conversion loss of 8～12 dB and an input P1dB of 1～5 dBm at the LO power of 10 dBm from 71～86 GHz.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.526-534
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• 2008

This paper presents a fully integrated 0.13 ${\mu}m$ CMOS MB-OFDM UWB transmitter chain (mode 1). The proposed transmitter consists of a low-pass filter, a variable gain amplifier, a voltage-to-current converter, an I/Q up-mixer, a differential-to-single-ended converter, a driver amplifier, and a transmit/receive (T/R) switch. The proposed T/R switch shows an insertion loss of less than 1.5 dB and a Tx/Rx port isolation of more than 27 dB over a 3 GHz to 5 GHz frequency range. All RF/analog circuits have been designed to achieve high linearity and wide bandwidth. The proposed transmitter is implemented using IBM 0.13 ${\mu}m$ CMOS technology. The fabricated transmitter shows a -3 dB bandwidth of 550 MHz at each sub-band center frequency with gain flatness less than 1.5 dB. It also shows a power gain of 0.5 dB, a maximum output power level of 0 dBm, and output IP3 of +9.3 dBm. It consumes a total of 54 mA from a 1.5 V supply.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.409-412
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• 2002

Under atmospheric pressure, apparently homogeneous and stable plasma can be generated from insulator barrier rf plasma generators each of which has an rf powered cathode and a grounded anode covered with a dielectric insulating material. In order to characterize the generating plasma under atmospheric pressure, some basic characteristic have been evaluated by the Langmuire probe method as well as by optical emission spectroscopy. From the result of plasma characteristics, the generated plasma was verified to be nonequilibrium; T(electron)>T(excitation)>T(gas). High rate Si(100) etching (($1.5{\mu}m$/min) were achieved by using He plasma containing a small amount of $CF_4$.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.67-73
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• 2009

Compared to the chip-bonding process utilizing solder bumps, flip chip process using Cu pillar bumps can accomplish fine-pitch interconnection without compromising stand-off height. Cu pillar bump technology is one of the most promising chip-mounting process for RF packages where large gap between a chip and a substrate is required in order to suppress the parasitic capacitance. In this study, Cu pillar bumps and Sn bumps were electroplated on a chip and a substrate, respectively, and were flip-chip bonded together. Contact resistance and chip shear force of the Cu pillar bump joints were measured with variation of the electroplated Sn-bump height. With increasing the Sn-bump height from 5 ${\mu}m$ to 30 ${\mu}m$, the contact resistance was improved from 31.7 $m{\Omega}$ to 13.8 $m{\Omega}$ and the chip shear force increased from 3.8 N to 6.8 N. On the contrary, the aspect ratio of the Cu pillar bump joint decreased from 1.3 to 0.9. Based on the variation behaviors of the contact resistance, the chip shear force, and the aspect ratio, the optimum height of the electroplated Sn bump could be thought as 20 ${\mu}m$.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.85-90
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• 1997

A new ionized sputtering process was developed to fill small trench or via using additional ionizing mechanism of sputtered particles from 32cm $AlCu_x$(x=0.5%) cathode target with rotating magnet, then drawn toward substrate by small negative DC potential. The radial uniformity in RFI magnetron sputtering was studied by plasma diagnosis and appropriate RFI coil design to improve it. Optical emission intensities of excited species. $Ar^{\circ}, \;Ar^+;Al^+, \;Al^{\circ}$ are measured across the radial direction and showed close correlation with deposit's bottom to top thickness ratios in trenches and vias of submicron opening and 1.5 aspect ratio. After increase of the diameter of RF coil from 29 cm to 32 cm and improved the power leading feedthrough symmetry by removal of asymmetric single turn region, there was an increase of uniformity from 7.5% to 1.5% in bottom to top thickness ratio in 0.6 $\mu\textrm{m}$ vias.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.76-79
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• 2016

This paper describes the successful development and the performance of X-band 50 W pulsed power amplifier using a 50 W GaN-on-SiC high electron mobility transistor. The GaN HEMT with a gate length of $0.25{\mu}m$ and a total gate width of 12 mm were fabricated. The X-band pulsed power amplifier exhibited an output power of 50 W with a power gain of 6 dB in a frequency range of 9.2~9.5 GHz. It also shows a maximum output power density of 4.16 W/mm. This 50 W GaN HEMT and X-band 50 W pulsed power amplifier are suitable for the radar systems and related applications in X-band.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2008.07a
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• pp.1464-1465
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• 2008

In this paper, we compared the mechanical characteristics between LTCC-based RF MEMS packaging structures fabricated using two different types of bonding materials; BCB and gold-tin. The BCB-based packages showed an average shear strength of 32.1 MPa and helium leak rate of $1.76{\times}10^{-8}atm{\cdot}cc/sec$ for a cavity volume of $0.45\times10^{-3}cc$, while the packages bonded by gold-tin layer (80 wt.% gold, 20 wt.% tin) showed an average shear strength of 42.70 MPa and helium leak rate $1.38{\times}10^{-8}atm{\cdot}cc/sec$ for a cavity volume of $1.21{\times}10^{-3}cc$.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.921-924
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• 2005

We report low conversion loss and high LO to RF isolation 94 GHz MMIC resistive mixers based on 0.1 ${\mu}m$ InGaAs/InAlAs/GaAs metamorphic HEMT technology. The fabricated resistive mixers applied a one-stage amplifier on RF port of the mixer. By using the one-stage amplifier, we obtained the decrement of conversion loss and the increment of LO to RF isolation. So, we can obtain higher performances than conventional resistive mixers. The modified mixer shows excellent conversion loss of 6.7 dB at a LO power of 10 dBm. We also observed an extremely high isolation characteristic from the MMICs exhibiting the LO-RF isolation of 21 ${\pm}$ 0.5dB in a frequency range of 93.7${\sim}$ 94.3 GHz. The low conversion loss and high LO-RF isolation characteristics of the MMIC modified resistive mixers are mainly attributed to the performance of the MHEMTs exhibiting a maximum transconductance of 654 mS/mm, a current gain cut-off frequency of 173 GHz and a maximum oscillation frequency of 271 GHz.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.2441-2446
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• 2018

This paper presents a radio frequency-to-direct current (RF-to-DC) converter for special RF power harvesting application at 915 MHz. The major featured components of the proposed RF-to-DC converter is the combination of a cross-coupled rectifier and an active diode: first, the cross-coupled rectifier boosts the input voltage to desired level, and an active diode blocks the reverse current, respectively. A prototype was implemented using $0.18{\mu}m$ CMOS technology, and the performance was proven from the fact that the targeted RF harvesting system's full-operation with higher power efficiency; even if the system's input power gets lower (e.g., from nominal 0 to min. -12 dBm), the proposed RF-to-DC converter constantly provides 1.47 V, which is exactly the voltage level to drive follow up system components like DC-to-DC converter and so on. And, maximum power conversion efficiency is 82 % calculated from the 0 dBm input power, 2.3 mA load current.