About Centre for Integrated RF Engineering

Mission

Centre for Integrated RF Engineering (CIRFE)'s mission is three-fold:

  1. To be a premier source of innovation, creativity and expertise in RF engineering.
  2. To provide a facility, a stimulating environment, and the necessary training for graduate students to successfully pursue a rewarding career in RF and other interdisciplinary engineering fields.
  3. To develop and foster collaborative research with industry, encouraging cross-fertilization of ideas and promoting technology transfer.

Capabilities and design tools

RF design tools
Close up of RF probes

  • High frequency structural simulator (HFSS)
  • Advanced design system (ADS)
  • Momentum
  • Sonnet EM (electromagnetic)
  • In-house software tools

Micro-electro-mechanical (MEMS) design and layout tools

Close up of scanning probe device
  • CoventorWare
  • ​COMSOL Multiphysics
  • MEMSPro
  • Cadence
  • Ledit
  • ANSYS Workbench and ADPL
  • IDEA

Fabrication

  • Plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) of nitrides, oxides
  • Reactive-ion etching (RIE) of metals, nitrides, oxides
  • Deep RIE of silicon (BOSCH process)
  • Dry etching using Ion-milling
  • Physical vapour deposition: (E-beam) evaporation with in-situ DC sputtering source
  • Physical vapour deposition using sputtering system (RF and DC) with 2 active sources
  • Spin coating of low-K and high-K materials
  • Wet etching and UV-photolithography
  • Laser micromachining (green and ultraviolet)
  • Critical point carbon dioxide (CO2) dryer
  • Electroplating: gold and silver
  • Chemical-mechanical polishing

Packaging & Assembly

  • Wire/ribbon bonding
  • Flip-chip bonding
  • Micro-spot welding
  • Substrate to carrier attachment
  • Micro-assembly

Testing

  • PNAs and VNAs (Vector Network Analyzer) up to 67 GHz with time domain capability
  • Vector Signal Generator (250kHz to 6GHz)
  • High Power RF Amplifier (up to 40dBm from 0.7 to 3.0 GHz) 
  • On-wafer probe testing (room temperature)
  • On-wafer probe testing in vacuum (10-6 Torr) over temperatures down to 3 Kelvin (-270oC)
  • A temperature controlled chamber for testing devices down to 77 Kelvin
  • Thermal cycling chamber for life testing
  • Optical breadboarding and bench testing
  • Lock-In Amplifier
  • A multi-channel MEMS driver station
  • Multifunction generators, power suppliers high-frequency bias tees, and much more.