A Photogenerated Silicon Plasma Waveguide Switch and Variable Attenuator
for Millimeter-Wave Applications
- Thomas Jones ,
- Alden Fisher ,
- Douglas W. Barlage ,
- Dimitrios Peroulis
Abstract
This paper reports the design, fabrication, and measurement of a
millimeter-wave solid-state ?pi-match waveguide switch using bulk
silicon micromachining. A photogenerated plasma within a silicon post is
utilized as the switching element within the waveguide channel. Not only
does this isolate the switch bias network from the RF signal path, but
allows for tuning of the OFF-state isolation with increasing optical
power for application as a variable attenuator. A measured OFF-state
isolation greater than 25 dB up to 40 GHz is reported, with a measured
extracted ON-state insertion loss of 0.52 dB at 35 GHz, and less than
0.88 dB across the entire band from 30-40 GHz. The proposed switch
illustrates the significant potential for photogenerated silicon plasma
switching of high-performance bulk micromachined millimeter-wave
waveguides.Dec 2021Published in IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques volume 69 issue 12 on pages 5393-5403. 10.1109/TMTT.2021.3121692