Title :
MEMS designed for tunable capacitors
Author :
Wu, H.D. ; Harsh, K.F. ; Irwin, R.S. ; Wenge Zhang ; Mickelson, A.R. ; Lee, Y.C. ; Dobsa, J.B.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Mech. Eng., Colorado Univ., Boulder, CO, USA
Abstract :
A new tunable capacitor based on a standard microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology has been demonstrated. Its unique feature was the use of thermal actuators as indirect drives to change air gap from 2 to 0.2 /spl mu/m for high-Q MM-wave capacitors. Such a drive scheme achieved a sub-/spl mu/m controllability. The insertion loss of a polysilicon MEMS capacitor was measured to be -4dB at 40 GHz. Such a loss would have been better than -1 dB if the polysilicon were coated with metal.
Keywords :
Q-factor; capacitors; microactuators; millimetre wave devices; millimetre wave integrated circuits; tuning; -4 dB; 0.2 to 2 micron; 40 GHz; MEMS technology; Si; air gap; high-Q MM-wave capacitors; indirect drives; microelectromechanical systems; polysilicon MEMS capacitor; submicron controllability; thermal actuators; tunable capacitors; Actuators; Assembly; Capacitance measurement; Capacitors; Ceramics; Electrostatics; Micromechanical devices; Silicon; Thermal expansion; Voltage;
Conference_Titel :
Microwave Symposium Digest, 1998 IEEE MTT-S International
Conference_Location :
Baltimore, MD, USA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-4471-5
DOI :
10.1109/MWSYM.1998.689339
