Vol.29 No.4(1) [2007]

Development of Millimeter-Wave Planar Devices Using Low-Loss Sub-strates

Naoki ITO, Atsushi MASE, Yuichiro KOGI, Noriaki SEKO, Masao TAMADA and Eiji SAKATA

[ABSTRACT ]

As the importance of advanced millimeter-wave diagnostics increases, the fabri-cations of high-performance devices and components become essential. This paper describes the development of millimeter-wave planar components, such as antennas using low-loss fluorine substrates. The problems to be solved for the present purpose are the low degree of adhesion between copper foil and fluorine substrate and the ac-curacy of device pattern using conventional fabrication techniques. In order to solve these problems, surface treatment of fluorine films and a fabrication method using Electro-Fine-Forming (EF2) are proposed. The peel adhesion strength between the metal and the fluorine films, and the value of dielectric constant of the fluorine films before and after grafting, are reported. In order to confirm the performance of the treated films, microstrip lines (MSL) are fabricated on the conventional fluorine sub-strates and on the grafted-PTFE (Polytetrafluoroethylene) films. The prototype an-tenna using fluorine substrates with EF2 fabrication technique is also introduced.