High tuning range MEMS capacitor for microwave applications

Author

David, E. ; Zlotnikov, T. ; Gal, L. ; Lavie, O. ; Nemirovsky, Y.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Technion - Israel Inst. of Technol., Haifa, Israel

fYear

2009

fDate

9-11 Nov. 2009

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

This paper presents a novel MEMS comb-structured variable capacitor at 20 GHz that features a wide capacitance tuning range of 200%, yet avoids unwanted coupling through the springs. This new varactor consists of three comb structures - two of which are anchored to the substrate, while the third, which capacitively couples the two anchored ones, is movable, suspended on mechanical springs. This new design decouples the mechanical mechanism from the RF capacitor and allows an independent optimal design of the two.

Keywords

micromechanical devices; microwave devices; springs (mechanical); tuning; varactors; capacitance tuning; comb-structured variable capacitor; frequency 20 GHz; high tuning range MEMS capacitor; mechanical springs; microwave applications; varactor; Capacitance; Capacitors; Energy consumption; Micromachining; Micromechanical devices; Q factor; Radio frequency; Springs; Tuning; Varactors; Microelectromechanical devices; Micromachining; Q factor; Varactor; capacitors;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwaves, Communications, Antennas and Electronics Systems, 2009. COMCAS 2009. IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Tel Aviv

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-3985-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/COMCAS.2009.5386051

Filename

5386051