Performance degradation of defective MEMS tunable RF filter

The common defects that could occur during the fabrication and long term operation of a tunable bandpass filter using RF MEMS switches are simulated with SONNET. The faulty responses of the defective filter are then analyzed and linked to the defects that cause them. The work carried out aims at being able to narrow down and possibly identify the defects quickly in future by measuring the faulty filter responses, thus enabling defects to be screened quickly or for the development of built-in self-testable filter.