Vibrating RF MEMS technology: fuel for an integrated micromechanical circuit revolution?

Having produced devices with sufficient Q, thermal stability, and manufacturability, for component-level use in present-day wireless handsets, vibrating RF MEMS technology is now poised to take its next logical steps: higher levels of circuit complexity and integration. In particular, as vibrating RF MEMS devices are perceived more as circuit building blocks than as standalone devices, and as the frequency processing circuits they enable become larger and more complex, the makings of an integrated micromechanical circuit technology begin to take shape, perhaps with a functional breadth to rival that of integrated transistor circuits. This paper suggests the mechanical circuit element properties that ensure a broad functional range for integrated micromechanical circuits.