INTERESTS OF POLYMERS IN RF MEMS APPLICATIONS
K. GRENIER, D. DUBUC, J-P. BUSQUERE, F. BOUCHRIHA, A. RENANNE, P. PONS, R. PLANA

Abstract. The attractive properties of polymers, such as low microwave losses, low tensile stress and multilayer possibility, have enhanced their use in the microwave and millimeterwave fields and in particularly the RF MEMS applications. Their utilization from the minimization of losses through different process techniques (thick polymer layer deposited on a lossy substrate or as a dielectric membrane combined to the Si bulk micromachining) up to the 3D integration of microsystems above IC’s present great interest and is specified in this paper. A special attention has been given to the compatibility of these chemicals and their associated microelectronic techniques with active devices performances.

Index terms. Polymer, RF MEMS, microwave, millimeterwave, process compatibility.