This paper investigates the fabrication accuracy of the W-band SU-8 photoresist micromachined 4th order waveguide bandpass filters (BPF). The designed filter based on cylindrical resonators is excited in TM010 mode. It is ideally suitable for the layered SU-8 micromachining process as the height of the resonator is much smaller than one wavelength, the electromagnetic fields remain unchanged in the thickness direction. The filter is composed of three silver-coated SU-8 layers based on a double-layer overlay process. Excellent manufacturing tolerances can be controlled within 4 μm in the thickness direction, around 10 μm in double-layer stacking accuracy, and an average of 1° in vertical angle deviation. Various challenges encountered in the SU-8 process are investigated while corresponding general solutions are proposed for machining high-precision devices. The measured results show a return loss of 12.4 dB and a minimum insertion loss of 0.8 dB, which are in agreement with the simulated one. Stress and deformation analysis are also conducted to confirm the maximum pressure that the filter can withstand and maintain good transmission performance.
Keywords: SU-8 photoresist; W-band; cylindrical resonators; microfabrication; millimeter wave; waveguide filter.