A Thermoelectric MEMS Microwave Power Sensor with Inline Self-Detection Function

Abstract

In this paper, the design, fabrication and measurement of a thermoelectric MEMS microwave power sensor with the terminal load inline self-detection function is proposed. The structure of the sensor mainly includes a coplanar waveguide, a thermopile, two terminal load resistors and two calibration resistors. In order to realize the inline self-detection function, the load and calibration resistors are designed to form a voltage divider circuit. The fabrication of this sensor is compatible with the GaAs MMIC technology. The on-chip performance is tested by using a microwave experimental platform. The measured reflection loss is less than −10 dB at 0.1–10 GHz. When the bias voltage is not applied, the sensitivity of the sensor is 47.39 μV/mW@5 GHz and 32.58 μV/mW@10 GHz, respectively, and when the bias voltage is applied, the sensitivity is 47.50 μV/mW@5 GHz and 32.73 μV/mW@10 GHz, respectively. The difference between the two cases is less than 0.5% at the same frequency, which indicates that whether or not to apply the bias voltage has little effect on the sensitivity. In addition, when the calibration resistance is increased from 50 to 100 Ω, the current flowing through the load resistance is decreased under the same bias voltage. Therefore, the DC power consumed on the load resistance will be significantly reduced. This makes the measured and theoretical results show better agreement, thus verifying the validity of the design.