MEMS technology as a contender for the future wireless applications

This paper outlines the MEMS technology as a contender for the next-generation communications systems. Among the results, we can note that micromachined transmission lines feature very low loss and are now useable up to millimeter wave frequencies. Similar results are obtained concerning the micromachined filter which exhibits impressive performance in term of quality factor and insertion loss. MEMS switches are very promising devices as they will be able to replace a certain number of solid-state circuits, enabling better performances in term of loss, isolation, linearity and power consumption. Furthermore, these technologies are becoming to be involve in the realization of smart devices like micromachined oscillators, front ends, reconfigurable circuits or phase shifters