• DocumentCode
    3495010
  • Title

    An improved design for parallel plate MEMS variable capacitors

  • Author

    Bakri-Kassem, Maher ; Mansour, Raafat R.

  • Author_Institution
    Waterloo Univ., Canada
  • Volume
    2
  • fYear
    2004
  • fDate
    6-11 June 2004
  • Firstpage
    865
  • Abstract
    A MEMS variable capacitor having additional carrier beams is proposed. The use of the carrier beams increases the capacitor´s tuning range and prevents the top plate from collapsing at a tuning range of 50%. The tuning range was measured and found to be 410% at 1 GHz with a maximum DC bias voltage of 9.2 volt. The achievable tuning range exceeds that of the traditional parallel plate MEMS variable capacitors. The proposed MEMS variable capacitor is built using the PolyMUMPs process.
  • Keywords
    UHF devices; micromechanical devices; varactors; 1 GHz; 9.2 V; DC bias voltage; capacitor tuning range; carrier beams; microelectromechanical systems; parallel plate MEMS variable capacitor design; polyMUMPs process.; Capacitors; Electrodes; Electrostatics; Etching; Gold; Iron; Micromechanical devices; Steady-state; Testing; Voltage;
  • fLanguage
    English
  • Publisher
    ieee
  • Conference_Titel
    Microwave Symposium Digest, 2004 IEEE MTT-S International
  • ISSN
    0149-645X
  • Print_ISBN
    0-7803-8331-1
  • Type

    conf

  • DOI
    10.1109/MWSYM.2004.1339106
  • Filename
    1339106