Effects of Average Power-Handling Capability on DC-Sputtering Aluminum Nitride Thin Film on Ceramic Substrate

Abstract

In this paper, we presented a method to investigate the effects of average power-handling capability (APHC) on dc reactive magnetron sputtering aluminum nitride (AlN) thin film coplanar waveguide (CPW) line fabricated on the ceramic substrate. We discussed the effects of material properties, microwave characteristics, and APHC on the thin-film CPW line. Using the AlN thin-film passivation on the ceramic substrate can effectively improve the thermal conductivity and enhance the APHC of a thin-film CPW line. Measured microwave losses (total of conductor loss $\pmb{\alpha}_{\mathbf{c}}(\pmb{f})$ and dielectric loss $\pmb{\alpha}_{\mathbf{d}}(\pmb{f})$, dielectric constant, and APHC were extracted from S-parameters that were measured up to 10 GHz. This method can be applied in low-temperature cofired ceramic techniques (LTCC).