Design and development of passive and active RF Components using MEMS technology

This paper presents the basic micromachined transmission line and its characteristics. Closed form expressions to generate propagation characteristics of this line are also generated. Next, methodology for the design and development of both passive and active components operating in the microwave and millimeter wave frequency region is described. The passive circuits demonstrated are the low pass filter, band stop filter and antenna elements. The passive antenna design is based on dividing the circuit into bulk feed line, micromachined line to bulk feed line transition and membrane supported micromachined antenna. Each region is modeled using full wave electromagnetic simulation software HFSS. Several patch shapes considered in the design, along with their merits are discussed. As an example, the design and development of an 8x8 micromachined antenna array at Ka-band is described. In the active circuit, the two-port membrane supported micromachined antenna is connected in positive feedback path of an MMIC amplifier chip using bulk feed lines.