Compact RF MEMS Antenna with Silicon Substrate

High dielectric constant silicon is used as substrate to design new style MEMS antenna in this paper. The design method of silicon antenna with back cavity is proposed. The back rectangular cavity is etched to form hybrid structure of silicon and air, which can lower effective dielectric constant and reduce surface wave loss of silicon substrate. The MEMS processing steps are designed to fabricate MEMS antenna with photoetching and ICP cavity etching process. The simulated and measured results show the compact MEMS antenna has ultra-wide frequency bandwidth and good omni-direction radiation performance.