Patent ID: 8691657

Claim:
A method for preventing corona effect in a monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) comprising the steps of: disposing a bottom metal layer on a substrate; defining a conductive via through the substrate in electrical contact with the bottom metal layer, the conductive via further connected to a reference electrical potential; disposing a layer of dielectric material on a region of the bottom metal layer; forming a component metal layer over the conductive via and in electrical communication with the via and the bottom metal layer to define an electrical component; forming a top metal layer on the layer of dielectric material, the layer of dielectric material being interposed between the top metal layer and the bottom metal layer to thereby define an MMIC capacitor on the substrate, the top metal layer of the MMIC capacitor being separated from the electrical component; and disposing a passivation layer adjacent and conformal to a side wall of the top metal layer, in an amount sufficient to reduce an electrical field of approximately 600 kV/mm within a region of the passivation layer by at least a factor of 4 to prevent corona effect.