A method of making an empty substrate integrated waveguide, ESIW, device including antenna and RF signal launch elements comprising the steps of: forming an ESIW pattern, an ESIW support, an RF signal launch, perimeter ground patterns and one or more edges of a waveguide on a wafer comprising lithium ions; annealing the exposed pattern in the presence of silver ions at a temperature that enables silver ions to coalesce into silver nanoparticles, and increasing the temperature to between 520°C-620°C to allow lithium oxide to form around the silver nanoparticles; coating a topside of the wafer with a photoresist; exposing and developing a pattern to protect the waveguide pattern while leaving the ground pattern exposed; spinning on a blanket photoresist on a backside of the wafer and etching exposed ground ceramic portions in an HF bath; removing the photoresist leaving one or more ground pattern openings and a ceramic waveguide; electroplating copper on the open ground pattern until all ground openings are filled; coating a backside of the wafer with photoresist; exposing and developing a rectangular element with one or more small etch release features; depositing 200Å to 2,000Å of titanium metal to form a first titanium layer, followed by a 1 μm deposition of copper onto the backside of the wafer; removing the photoresist leaving a rectangular copper element to form a bottom of the ESIW structure that is electrically connected to the ground pattern copper and waveguide launching element; exposing and developing a rectangular element in photoresist that is oversized over the ceramic ESIW pattern with the one or more etch release features; electroplating copper on the exposed copper areas with between 5-50 μm of copper to improve the rigidity of the ESIW structure; depositing 200Å to 2,000Å of titanium metal to form a second titanium layer followed by a 0.5um to 1μm deposition of copper onto the topside of the wafer; coating the top side of the wafer with a photoresist; exposing and developing a top side ESIW pattern; using a standard photoresist stripper, copper etchant and titanium etchant to remove the photoresist and to etch any exposed deposition metal, leaving the electroplated copper ESIW patterns; placing wafer in a 0.5% to 50% HF ultrasonic bath; and washing the wafer to remove the HF to obtain the empty substrate integrated waveguide device including antenna and RF signal launch elements. forming an ESIW pattern, an ESIW support, an RF signal launch, perimeter ground patterns and one or more edges of a waveguide on a wafer comprising lithium ions; annealing the exposed pattern in the presence of silver ions at a temperature that enables silver ions to coalesce into silver nanoparticles, and increasing the temperature to between 520°C-620°C to allow lithium oxide to form around the silver nanoparticles; coating a topside of the wafer with a photoresist; exposing and developing a pattern to protect the waveguide pattern while leaving the ground pattern exposed; spinning on a blanket photoresist on a backside of the wafer and etching exposed ground ceramic portions in an HF bath; removing the photoresist leaving one or more ground pattern openings and a ceramic waveguide; electroplating copper on the open ground pattern until all ground openings are filled; coating a backside of the wafer with photoresist; exposing and developing a rectangular element with one or more small etch release features; depositing 200Å to 2,000Å of titanium metal to form a first titanium layer, followed by a 1 μm deposition of copper onto the backside of the wafer; removing the photoresist leaving a rectangular copper element to form a bottom of the ESIW structure that is electrically connected to the ground pattern copper and waveguide launching element; exposing and developing a rectangular element in photoresist that is oversized over the ceramic ESIW pattern with the one or more etch release features; electroplating copper on the exposed copper areas with between 5-50 μm of copper to improve the rigidity of the ESIW structure; depositing 200Å to 2,000Å of titanium metal to form a second titanium layer followed by a 0.5um to 1μm deposition of copper onto the topside of the wafer; coating the top side of the wafer with a photoresist; exposing and developing a top side ESIW pattern; using a standard photoresist stripper, copper etchant and titanium etchant to remove the photoresist and to etch any exposed deposition metal, leaving the electroplated copper ESIW patterns; placing wafer in a 0.5% to 50% HF ultrasonic bath; and washing the wafer to remove the HF to obtain the empty substrate integrated waveguide device including antenna and RF signal launch elements.