Space Qualification of RF MEMS

Packaging is critical for reliability, and constitutes ~80% of the cost of a MEMS product. Low-cost packaging is thus seen as the gateway to consumer markets.Proposed Phase I work will evaluate and optimize micropackaging under different thermal cycling, radiation and hermeticity/vacuum conditions, as well as for high frequency (upto 40 GHz) performance. MicroAssembly's microbump technology eliminates the needfor lossy bond wires, and our ability to make fine-pitch connections within the package would enable hybrid, multi-chip systems with the performance of monolithic devices RF MEMS is projected to exceed $1 billion by 2007 . MEMS packaging costs, up to 80%of production costs, is a key advantage for MicroAssembly.