MEMS-4-MMIC: Advances in combined GaAs MEMS-MMIC technology

This article describes the progress made during the first project year of the FP7 EU-project MEMS-4-MMIC that focuses on the merging of innovative RF-MEMS switch designs with established MMIC-technology. The ultimate goal is to include RF-MEMS switches into a standard commercial foundry process. Such switches will then become standard building blocks for MMIC circuits such as transistors, resistors and capacitors. Besides the development and qualification of the MEMS-MMIC designs and processes, MEMS-MMIC components are designed for specific applications (phased arrays, switch beam networks, etc.) that will benefit from this type of building blocks. First prototypes of latter components have been realized and measured in the first year of the project, and are presented in this paper.