Design and modeling of RF MEMS tunable capacitors using electro-thermal actuators

Author

Zhiping Feng ; Wenge Zhang ; Bingzhi Su ; Harsh, K.F. ; Gupta, K.C. ; Bright, V. ; Lee, Y.C.

Author_Institution

CAMPmode, Colorado Univ., Boulder, CO, USA

Volume

4

fYear

1999

fDate

13-19 June 1999

Firstpage

1507

Abstract

A series mounted MEMS tunable capacitor in a CPW line is reported. An electro-thermal actuator has been used for driving the top plate of the parallel plate capacitor. The MEMS structure is bonded on an alumina substrate using flip-chip technology so that the silicon on the backside of the MEMS can be removed to reduce the RF losses. The lumped-element model of the capacitor up to 40 GHz has been developed based on Y-parameters, which are derived from measured S-parameters. The measured Q-factor is 256 at 1 GHz for a 0.102 pF capacitor and C/sub max//C/sub min/ ratio of the capacitor is about 2:1.

Keywords

Q-factor; S-parameters; capacitors; coplanar waveguide components; flip-chip devices; losses; micromechanical devices; 0.102 pF; 1 GHz; Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/; C/sub max//C/sub min/ ratio; CPW line; Q-factor; RF MEMS tunable capacitors; RF losses; S-parameters; Si; Y-parameters; electro-thermal actuators; flip-chip technology; lumped-element model; parallel plate capacitor; Actuators; Bonding; Capacitors; Coplanar waveguides; Micromechanical devices; Q factor; Radio frequency; Radiofrequency microelectromechanical systems; Scattering parameters; Silicon;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest, 1999 IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Anaheim, CA, USA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5135-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.1999.780240

Filename

780240