Copper micromachined WR‐2.2 band waveguide and bandpass filter

Abstract

AbstractThis paper presents a WR‐2.2 band (330–500 GHz) waveguide with E‐plane bends and a waveguide bandpass filter. A micro‐metal additive manufacturing technology employs copper to process these devices. This technology includes several micromachining processes, which can produce integrated, miniaturized, and complex three‐dimensional metal microstructures when meeting the process constraints. To successfully apply this technology to the fabrication of terahertz waveguide devices, many design details are considered. First, the E‐plane bent transition structures in the waveguide overcome size limitations imposed by the manufacturing process, allowing for accurate measurement using standard waveguide interfaces. Second, the rectangular resonators compose the fifth‐order waveguide bandpass filter spanning 20 GHz with a center frequency of 380 GHz. Given that the excess photoresist needs to be removed, some release holes are designed in the proper positions of the filter. Third, to increase the uniformity of the device layout and improve the machining quality in the electroforming process, a lot of rectangular holes are arranged around the device. By adopting a meticulous and novel design method in accordance with the process advantages and limitations, the fabrication accuracy of the device size is greatly increased. The integrated filter with exceptional performance is obtained. The measured average insertion loss within the passband is better than 1.2 dB, and the return loss exceeds 15 dB. Additionally, the filter demonstrates a center frequency offset of approximately 0.5%. Good consistency between simulation and measurement shows the validity of design and fabrication.