Fabrication of 3-D Metamaterials Using LTCC Techniques for High-Frequency Applications

Metamaterials are artificially engineered metallo-dielectric microstructures that display strong resonance behavior although their electrical size is similar to 0.1 lambda. Individually they behave like LC oscillators and collectively they give rise to effective permittivity and permeability that are highly dispersive in the resonance region and may even become negative. In this paper, metamaterials with 3-D interconnects are designed for low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) fabrication. The fabricated materials are characterized experimentally using a free-space measurement system in the 33-110 GHz range. Dupont 951 is chosen as the substrate with silver ink for metallization. Three-layer and five-layer samples were fabricated. The fabricated samples exhibit electric resonance, magnetic resonance, or both, depending on the orientation and geometry of the metallic microstructure. The materials are passive and may be modeled using series and/or parallel LC circuits. LTCC metamaterials are proposed for packaging applications in microwave integrated circuits that may require embedded passive inductors, capacitors, resistor elements, and circuits that are functional at required frequencies and are inactive at other frequencies.