Title :
Development of a novel micro electromechanical tunable capacitor with a high tuning range
Author :
Jun Zou ; Chang Liu
Author_Institution :
Microelectron. Lab., Illinois Univ., Urbana, IL, USA
Abstract :
Micro electromechanical tunable capacitors have been under active development recently (Young and Boser, 1996; Young et al., 1998; Dec and Suyama, 1997; Yao et al., 1998). The advantages of integrating MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) tunable capacitors on RF integrated circuits include: (1) higher quality factor compared with IC counterparts; (2) lower interconnection- and parasitic-related loss; (3) reduced system complexity. We report a new parallel-plate tunable capacitor design with a tuning range greater than the 50% limit imposed by the pull-in effect. This new design has been validated by FEA (finite element analysis) simulation using MEMCAD 4.0.
Keywords :
Q-factor; capacitance; capacitors; electron device testing; electronic design automation; finite element analysis; microactuators; microwave integrated circuits; tuning; FEA; MEMCAD 4.0 simulation; MEMS tunable capacitor integration; RF integrated circuits; finite element analysis simulation; interconnection-related loss; micro electromechanical tunable capacitor; microelectromechanical system tunable capacitor integration; parallel-plate tunable capacitor design; parasitic-related loss; pull-in effect; quality factor; system complexity; tuning range; Capacitors; Circuit optimization; Finite element methods; Integrated circuit interconnections; Microelectromechanical systems; Micromechanical devices; Q factor; Radio frequency; Radiofrequency integrated circuits; Tunable circuits and devices;
Conference_Titel :
Device Research Conference, 2000. Conference Digest. 58th DRC
Conference_Location :
Denver, CO, USA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-6472-4
DOI :
10.1109/DRC.2000.877111
