CMOS VCO & LNA implemented by air-suspended on-chip RF MEMS LC

This paper presents an IC implementation of a voltage-controlled-oscillator (VCO) and a low-noise-amplifier (LNA) with air-suspended MEMS (microelectromechanical-system) inductors and capacitors, which were designed and is being fabricated with TSMC 0.35 μm CMOS technology. The on-chip MEMS passives have been developed for RF-IC implementation with high-quality-factors (Q), and the MEMS inductor is a spiral type with an air core. These RF-MEMS components are implemented on the top of the active integrated circuits and provide less phase noise cause by substrate conducting loss. The output frequency of 2.44 GHz by MEMS passives, and 740 MHz (2.2 GHz∼2.94 GHz) frequency variation by using MOS varactors were achieved. The MEMS integrated single-stage LNA operates at 2.4 GHz with 8.306 dB of gain (S21) and 1.968 dB of noise-factor (NF).