Abstract: A terminating type MEMS microwave power sensor based on the Seebeck effect and compatible with the GaAs MMIC process is presented. An electrothermal model is introduced to simulate the heat transfer behavior and temperature distribution. The sensor measured the microwave power from –20 to 20 dBm up to 20 GHz. The sensitivity of the sensor is 0.27 mV/mW at 20 GHz, and the input return loss is less than –26 dB over the entire experiment frequency range. In order to improve the sensitivity, four different types of coplanar waveguide (CPW) were designed and the sensitivity was significantly increased by about a factor of 2.

Key words: MEMS,  MMIC,  microwave power,  return loss,  sensitivity