A Folded Slot Antenna with Pre-Etched Cavity and Bcb Support Membrane on Silicon Wafer

This letter demonstrates a technique for a folded slot antenna fabricated on low resistive silicon wafer, using pre-etched cavity and Benzocyclobutene (BCB) support membrane. The most distinctive feature of this method is that a cavity is pre-etched before the antenna fabrication process using low-cost potassium hydroxide (KOH) wet etching. BCB membrane is employed to support the antenna above the cavity for its low permittivity as well as excellent thermal and mechanical stability. The fabrication process discussed in detail and the fabricated antenna was characterized. Experimental results show that the antenna resonates at 15.4 GHz with a very wide impedance bandwidth, up to 14.6%.