This thesis proposes a novel dual passband filter architecture and develops a design flow and synthesis method for this architecture. The technical contents include the fundamental passband filter design and the further methods for generating the higher second passband and the multiple transmission zeros. This thesis organizes a design flow based on analytical formulation for the proposed dual passband filter architecture. One can follow this design flow to substitute the filter specifications into the formulation and then can obtain the necessary element values for the filter architecture that match the specified specifications. The dual passband filter architecture is finally implemented on LTCC substrate for WLAN (IEEE 802.11 a/b/g) applications with verification of S parameters using EM-simulation and actual measurement.

Energy distribution in a conventional magnetic component is generally not at a designer's disposal. In a conventional toroidal inductor, the energy density is inversely proportional to the square of the radius. Thus, a designer would be unable to prescribe uniform field distribution to fully utilize the inductor volume for storing magnetic energy. To address this problem a new inductor design, called a "constant-flux" inductor, is introduced in this thesis. This new inductor has the core and windings configured to distribute the magnetic flux and energy relatively uniformly throughout the core volume to achieve power density higher than that of a conventional toroidal inductor. The core of this new inductor design is made of concentric cells of magnetic material, and the windings are wound in the gaps between the cells. This structure is designed to avoid crowding of the flux, thus ensuring lower core energy losses. In addition, the windings are patterned for shorter length and larger area of cross-section to facilitate lower winding energy losses. Based on this approach, a set of new, constant flux inductor/transformer designs has been developed. This design set is based on specific input parameters are presented in this thesis. These parameters include the required inductance, peak and rms current, frequency of operation, permissible dc resistance, material properties of the core such as relative permeability, maximum permissible magnetic flux density for the allowed core loss, and Steinmetz parameters to compute the core loss. For each constant flux inductor/transformer design, the winding loss and core loss of the magnetic components are computed. In addition, the quality factor is used as the deciding criterion for selection of an optimized inductor/transformer design. The first design presented in this thesis shows that for the same maximum magnetic field intensity, height, total stored energy, and material, the footprint area of the new five-cell constant-flux inductor is 1.65 times less than that of an equivalent conventional toroidal inductor. The winding loss for the new inductor is at least 10% smaller, and core loss is at least 1% smaller than that in conventional inductors. For higher energy densities and taller inductors, an optimal field ratio of the dimensions of each cell (α = Rimin/Rimax) and a larger number of cells is desired. However, there is a practical difficulty in realizing this structure with a larger number of cells and higher field ratio α. To address this problem, an inductor design is presented that has a footprint area of a three-cell constant-flux inductor (α = 0.6) that is 1.48 times smaller in comparison to an equivalent conventional toroidal inductor. For the same maximum magnetic flux density, height, material, and winding loss, the energy stored in this new three-cell constant-flux inductor (α = 0.6) is four times larger than that of an equivalent conventional toroidal inductor. Finally, new designs for application-specific toroidal inductors are presented in this thesis. First, a constant-flux inductor is designed for high-current, high-power applications. An equivalent constant-flux inductor to a commercially available inductor (E70340-010) was designed. The height of this equivalent inductor is 20% less than the commercial product with the same inductance and dc resistance. Second, a constant-flux inductor design of inductance 1.2 µH was fabricated using Micrometal-8 for the core and flat wire of 0.97 mm x 0.25 mm for the conductor. The core material of this inductor has relative permeability < 28 and maximum allowed flux density of 3600 Gauss. The dc resistance of this new, constant flux inductor was measured to be 14.4 mΩ. / Master of Science

No description available.

This paper deals with production of the structures fabricated using low temperature co-fired ceramics. Focus is on the lamination of raw ceramic tapes. There are presented classical thermo-compressive methods and a new method using chemical solutions for tape bonding. Describes new lamination technology and their advantages are the absence of elevated temperatures and high pressures. This method reduces using of higher temperatures and high pressure during lamination. On the other hand, chemical process of tape bonding is not flawless. There are many problems including solvent deposition, extreme sensitivity to dust and other processing parameters. It also describes the fabrication of structures by chemical way. Specifically, analyzes the method Cold Chemical Lamination and provides examples of possible deposition solvents which are needed for etching the surface of the LTCC tape during the lamination.

The recent developments in Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic (LTCC) as a substrate material enable it to be used in the micro and millimetre wave range providing low dissipation factors at high frequencies, good dielectric properties and a high degree of integration for further miniaturised devices. The most common metallisation method used in LTCC technology is screen printing with high cost noble metals such as silver and gold that are compatible with the high sintering temperatures (850°C). However, these techniques require high capital cost and maintenance cost. As the commercial world requires convenient and low cost process technologies for mass production, alternative metallisation methods should be considered. As a result, electroless copper plating of fired LTCC was mainly investigated in this research. The main goals of this project were to carry out electroless plating of fired LTCC with sufficient adhesion and to extend the process to metallise closed LTCC channel structures to manufacture Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) components. The objectives were focused on electroless copper deposition on fired LTCC with improved adhesion. Electroless deposits on the Sn/Pd activated LTCC surface showed poor adhesion without any surface pre-treatments. Hence, chemical etching of fired LTCC was carried out using concentrated NaOH solution. NaOH pre-treatment of LTCC led to the formation of flake like structures on the LTCC surface. A number of surface and chemical analysis techniques and weight measurements were used to investigate the mechanism of the modification of the LTCC surface. The results showed that the flake like structures were dispersed in the LTCC material and a material model for the LTCC structure was proposed. SEM EDX elemental mapping showed that the flake like structure consisted of aluminium, calcium, boron and oxygen. Further experiments showed that both the concentration of NaOH and the immersion time affect the surface morphology and the roughness of fired LTCC. The measured Ra values were 0.6 μm for untreated LTCC and 1.1 μm for the LTCC sample treated with 4M NaOH for 270 minutes. Adhesion tests including peel test and scratch test were carried out to examine the adhesion strength of the deposited copper and both tests indicated that the NaOH pre-treatment led to an improvement, with the best results achieved for samples treated with 4M NaOH. A second aspect of the research focused on the selective metallisation of fired LTCC. Excimer laser machining was used to pattern a resist film laminated on the LTCC surface. This process also roughened the substrate and created channels that were characterised with respect to the laser operating parameters. After patterning the resist layer, samples were activated using Sn/Pd catalyst solution followed by the electroless copper deposition. Electroless copper was selectively deposited only on the patterned LTCC surface. Laser parameters clearly affected the copper plating rate. Even with a similar number of shots per area, the tracks machined with higher repetition rate showed relatively more machining depth as well as good plating conditions with low resistance values. The process was further implemented to realize a complete working circuit on fired LTCC. Passive components including a capacitor and an inductor were also fabricated on LTCC using the mask projection technique of the excimer laser system. This was successful for many designs, but when the separation between conductor lines dropped below 18 μm, electroless copper started to deposit on the areas between them. Finally, a method to deposit copper films on the internal walls of closed channel structures was developed. The method was first demonstrated by flowing electroless copper solutions through silane treated glass capillaries. A thin layer (approx. 60 nm) of electroless copper was deposited only on the internal walls of the glass capillaries. The flow rate of the electroless copper solution had to be maintained at a low level as the copper deposits tended to wash away with higher flow rates. The structures were tested for transmission losses and showed low (<10dB) transmission losses in the terahertz region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The process was further applied to deposit electroless copper on the internal walls of the LTCC closed channel structures to manufacture a LTCC Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW).

This diploma thesis is divided into two parts - theoretical and practical. In its first, theoretical part, deals with the theory of fluid and gas flow, heat transfer and diversification of sensors for flow measurement working on the electrical principle. It also deals with thermodynamic principle, which can be used for measuring very small flow and low-temperature ceramics that is used to implement microcanals for sensing very low flows. The practical part of the thesis deals with the very simulation of the entire structure in the program “COMSOL Multiphysics” - both in 2D and 3D views. Then there is shown the implementation and measurement of the flow sensor in a low-temperature ceramics, working on a thermodynamic principle.