2012-Micromachined Low-Mass RF Front-End For Beam Steering Radar
2012-Micromachined Low-Mass RF Front-End For Beam Steering Radar
ABSTRACT
Sensors for autonomous small robotic platforms must be low mass, compact size and low power due to the
limited space. For such applications, as the dimensions of the structures shrink, standard machining
methods are not suitable because of low fabrication tolerances and high cost in assembly. Commonly, the
structures show a high degree of fabrication complexity due to error in alignment, air gaps between
conductive parts, poor metal contact, inaccuracy in patterning because of non-contact lithography, complex
assemblies of various parts, and high number of steps needed for construction. However, micromachining
offers high fabrication precision, provides easy fabrication and integration with active devices and hence is
suitable for manufacturing high MMW and submillimeter-wave frequency structures. A radar design
compatible with micromachining process is developed to fabricate a Y-band high resolution radar structure
with a slot-fed patch array antenna. A multi-step silicon DRIE process is developed for the fabrication of
the waveguide structure while the slots are suspended on a thin oxide/nitride/oxide membrane to form the
top cover of the waveguide trenches and the patch elements are suspended on a thin Parylene membrane.
Gold thermocompression bonding and Parylene bonding are used to assemble different parts of the antenna.
These processes result in a compact (4.5 cm 3.5 cm 1.5 mm) and light-weight (5 g) radar.
I. INTRODUCTION
The frequency bands of commercial MMW radars are mostly at 77 and 94 GHz for automotive and
imaging radars, respectively. With advances in MMIC technology, the applications in these bands have
increased and hence the available bandwidth has decreased. In addition, recent demands for very high
resolution radars highlighted the need for developing new methods for low-cost and low profile MMW
radars at higher MMW frequencies. This requires advances in modern circuitry, digital signal processing
techniques and FMCW waveform. There have been several attempts to realize high resolution compact
radars at 140 and 220 GHz especially for short range applications with external aperture-type antennas such
as horn antennas or integrated antennas such as planar antennas. However, in most of these systems,
antenna integration is still a challenge mainly because the antennas are bulky and provide simple
functionality; while the size, weight and cost of these radars have to decrease in order to be compatible for
small moving platforms and mass productions. For this purpose, low-loss, compact, and fully integrated
antennas with more sophisticated performance are required.
In this paper, a two-dimensional micromachined meander-line frequency scanning array based on WR-3
rectangular waveguide is presented for Y-band applications. The structure is capable of achieving 250
scanning around the broadside angle. A narrow 20 beamwidth is achieved in the azimuth direction using
linear array of slots that are cut on the broad wall of the waveguide. Employing hybrid-coupled patch
arrays, a fixed beam can be realized to present a fairly narrow beamwidth in the elevation direction as well.
The waveguide is fed through a membrane-supported cavity-backed CPW with the output of a frequency
multiplier providing 230 ~ 245 GHz FMCW signal. It employs waveguide and planar technologies for
passive and active components respectively. The passive components include slot-fed meanderline
waveguide patch array, CPW-waveguide transition and waveguide filters. A novel microfabrication method
using three separate silicon wafers is developed to fabricate the radar.
The structure under investigation is shown in Fig. 1 (a) in which slots are cut along the walls of a
meanderline waveguide in order to achieve broadside radiation and a satisfactory amount of phase shift
between elements without the need for a large bandwidth. In this design, the waveguide is bent around the
H-plane to have the radiating elements cut on the broad wall of the waveguide so that microfabrication
techniques are able to manage etching the height of the waveguide which is more endurable than etching
the thick width of the waveguide. In this structure, kd sin( ) l where d is the spacing between
elements which is the sum of the waveguide width and the separating wall, while l is the length between
them in each turn as shown in the unit cell of the structure in Fig. 1 (b). Hence, while it is feasible to realize
broadside radiation at any desired frequency with l 2n since l is flexible; the maximum scanning
angle can also be calculated as
l 1 1
1 sin 1 1 ( ) (1)
d g 0 g1
To have the broadside radiation at the center frequency, l is chosen to be a modulus of g 0 in order to
generate 2n phase shift between the elements at the center frequency. Table I shows the range of
scanning angle assuming 15 GHz available bandwidth (230 ~ 245 GHz) around the broadside radiation at
237.5 GHz for different values of wall thicknesses and length between elements. To achieve a very narrow
beamwidth (i.e. = 20), the length of the antenna must be extended by using a number of these unit cells.
The length is calculated from
L
L (2)
where, L is the aperture length. At 230 GHz, L = 37.4 mm to achieve 20 beam width, which give around 36
turns for t = 1114 m.
Since the overall waveguide length is quite large (~ 36 l = 36cm), and a large number of slots are
involved, sources of loss and reflection from the finite conductivity of metals, waveguide turns, and slots
must be managed very carefully.
-25 -10
-30
-20
-35
-30
-40
-40
(dB)
S11 (dB)
-45
-50
11
-50
S
-60
-55
-60 -70
-65 -80
-70 -90
230 235 240 245 230 235 240 245
Frequency (GHz) Frequency (GHz)
A. Reflection
There are two sources of reflection in the meander-line structure: from the bends and from the slots. To
minimize the reflection from the bends, the profile of the bends should be designed for a minimum
reflection. This can be performed by optimizing the shape of the bends using Ansoft HFSS. Simulations
results show that a diagonal cut around the edges provides a better transmission compared to a curved turn.
However, even though the reflection from bends is minimized, a number of successive small reflections
from all bends make a considerable amount. To minimize the total reflection, the waveguide length is
designed to generate constructive interference for the center frequency, since the reflection of the bend is
already minimized by optimizing the diagonal cut. In this case, the reflection in the beginning and the end
of the band is minimized by changing the thickness of separating walls to make the destructive interference.
The reflection coefficient of the structure is shown in Fig. 2 (b) and (c) for one and nine unit cells. The
maximum reflection is below -18 dB as opposed to -2 dB reflection for the former structure, while the
reflection at the center frequency is maintained around -60 dB. This structure has thicker separating walls
which makes it stiffer and suitable for microfabrication.
To minimize the reflection of the slots, having cut one slot in each turn, the two-way distance between
two successive slots is an integer multiple of g (2×5.5 = 11 g in this design). Therefore, their successive
reflections add up coherently and causes scan blindness at the center frequency. To mitigate this problem
we need a reflection canceling pair for each slot positioned at g / 4 .
B. Conductor Loss
In a rectangular waveguide, the conductor loss is calculated from
Rm ( 2bk c2 ak 02 ) (3)
ab TE10 k 0 Z 0
P2 P1 4 s P1 c P1 (4)
where, P1 and P2 are the input and output powers in the waveguide, c is the percentage of the conductive
loss and s the percentage of the radiated power off of each slot. For the next turn, the amount of the input
power is decreased to P2 hence s for each slot should be increased so that the total power sP remains
constant. Again the input power in the third turn decreases and the dimension of the slots should be
increased. According to this design, we start from slots with 300 m 5 m dimensions for the first turn
and end with those with 300 m 60 m for the last one.
radiated power %
0.6
2
Zslot/Z0
0.4
1.8
0.2
1.6
0
1.4
-0.2 1.2
-0.4 1
-0.6 0.8
230 240 250 260 270 280 290 300 310 230 235 240 245
Freq (GHz) Freq (GHz)
(a) (b)
Fig. 3. (a) Normalized slot impedance versus frequency. A resonance happened at 282 GHz. (b) The total power associated with a
non-resonant slot for two different widths.
h1
h2
(a)
(b) (c)
Fig. 5. (a) The proposed hybrid-coupled patch array with silicon block. (b) The electric field distribution (c) the
radiation pattern at the center frequency 237.5 GHz and.
(a) (b)
Fig. 6 (a) final antenna structure and (b) the radiation pattern
(c)
(d)
Figure.2. (a) Three-step patterning the waveguide. (b) Meander-line waveguide. (c) back-to-back CBCPW to waveguide transition. (d)
waveguide filter with the transition
Figure.3. Second wafer fabrication process. A stacked layer of LPCVD SiO2/Si3N4/SiO2 (ONO) as a membrane followed by gold is
deposited. Then gold is patterned with the mask of (a) CPW and CBCPW lines. (b) the slots. (c) The wafer is flipped over and the
backside is etched from the top of the areas around CBCPW and slots.
(a) (b)
Figure.4. Fabricated second wafer. (a) top side- CPW/CBCPW lines (b) top side - slots
waveguide
trench
(a) (b)
Figure.5. First and second wafers. (a) before gold-gold thermocompression bonding (b) after bonding
(d) (e)
(f)
Figure.6. (a) First wafer before bonding. (b) the meander-line slot antenna after bonding, (c) the low-loss design (d) the
CBCPW/waveguide transition, (e) the CPW/CBCPW transition, (f) calibration standards, from left to right: thru, line, open, short,
offset short.
(a) (b)
deeper shallower
(c)
Figure.7. (a) multi-step etching for the patch array substrate. Thin shadow walls are also formed to protect the sidewalls of the silicon
block from gold-deposition. (b) gold-coating the substrate. (c) the realistic version of the structure.
Figure.11. Fabricated third wafer after dissolving the photoresist release layer.
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
Figure.12. Last step of the fabrication process. (a) The gold-bonded pair is Parylene-coated. (b) The wafers are aligned and (c)
bonded. (d) The third wafer is de-bonded with a razor blade through the edges.
IV. CONCLUSION
A novel radar design compatible with micromachining techniques is proposed for Y-band applications.
This structure is capable of achieving 250 scanning around the broadside angle. A narrow 20 beamwidth is
achieved in the azimuth direction using linear array of slots cut on the broad wall of the waveguide.
Employing hybrid-coupled patch arrays, a fixed beam can be realized to present a fairly narrow beamwidth
in the elevation direction as well. The waveguide is fed through a membrane-supported cavity-backed CPW
which is the output of a frequency multiplier providing 230 ~ 245 GHz FMCW signal.
REFERENCES