Ku band DMTL medium power phase shifters

The first part of this paper deals with curled shunt capacitive MEMS switched varactors with good power handling capabilities. These devices have been able to achieve 1 billion cycles under 5 W in hot switching conditions. These cantilevers have been used as switched capacitors periodically loaded along a Coplanar Wave Guide (CPW) line to form a Distributed MEMS Transmission Line (DMTL) phase shifter. In the second part, the integration of these beams in 90° and 180° DMTL sections operating at 15 GHz is shown. For these respective configurations, phase shifts of 89.3° and 178° have been observed and validate this conception. With reasonable loss of 60°/dB, these devices are among the first MEMS based phase shifter in literature able to operate at such power level in hot switching conditions.

[1]  D. Peroulis,et al.  RF MEMS switches with enhanced power-handling capabilities , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[2]  Gabriel M. Rebeiz,et al.  Optimization of distributed MEMS phase shifters , 1999, 1999 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest (Cat. No.99CH36282).

[3]  J.C.M. Hwang,et al.  Modeling and characterization of dielectric-charging effects in RF MEMS capacitive switches , 2005, IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest, 2005..

[4]  P. Blondy,et al.  Phase Shifter Design Based on Fast RF MEMS Switched Capacitors , 2008, 2008 European Microwave Integrated Circuit Conference.

[5]  Andrea Pierenrico Ferrero,et al.  An improved calibration technique for on-wafer large-signal transistor characterization , 1993 .

[6]  P. Blondy,et al.  A Wide Tuning Range MEMS Switched Patch Antenna , 2006, 2006 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest.

[7]  Gabriel M. Rebeiz.  RF MEMS: Theory, Design and Technology , 2003 .

[8]  C. Bozler,et al.  Power handling and linearity of MEM capacitive series switches , 2003, IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest, 2003.

[9]  Robert Puers,et al.  The prediction of stiction failures in MEMS , 2003 .

[10]  P. Blondy,et al.  RF-MEMS Switched Varactor for High Power Applications , 2006, 2006 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest.

[11]  P. Blondy,et al.  Study of Residual charing in dielectric less capacitive MEMS switches , 2008, 2008 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest.

[12]  G.M. Rebeiz,et al.  2 and 4-bit DC-18 GHz microstrip MEMS distributed phase shifters , 2001, 2001 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Sympsoium Digest (Cat. No.01CH37157).

[13]  D. Bouyge,et al.  Surface and bulk micromachined RF MEMS capacitive series switch for watt-range hot switching operation , 2007, 2007 European Microwave Conference.