Miniature and tunable filters using MEMS capacitors

Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) bridge capacitors have been used to design miniature and tunable bandpass filters at 18-22 GHz. Using coplanar waveguide transmission lines on a quartz substrate (/spl epsiv//sub r/ = 3.8, tan/spl delta/ = 0.0002), a miniature three-pole filter was developed with 8.6% bandwidth based on high-Q MEMS bridge capacitors. The miniature filter is approximately 3.5 times smaller than the standard filter with a midband insertion loss of 2.9 dB at 21.1 GHz. The MEMS bridges in this design can also be used as varactors to tune the passband. Such a tunable filter was made on a glass substrate (/spl epsiv//sub r/ = 4.6, tan/spl delta/ = 0.006). Over a tuning range of 14% from 18.6 to 21.4 GHz, the miniature tunable filter has a fractional bandwidth of 7.5 /spl plusmn/ 0.2% and a midband insertion loss of 3.85-4.15 dB. The IIP/sub 3/ of the miniature-tunable filter is measured at 32 dBm for the difference frequency of 50 kHz. The IIP/sub 3/ increases to >50 dBm for difference frequencies greater than 150 kHz. Simple mechanical simulation with a maximum dc and ac (ramp) tuning voltages of 50 V indicates that the filter can tune at a conservative rate of 150-300 MHz//spl mu/s.     

A low phase noise silicon 18-GHz push-push VCO

The design and measurement of a push-push voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) at 18.66-18.3 GHz are presented in this paper. The circuit includes two packaged silicon transistors (Siemens BFP 540F) and a microstrip resonator tuned by two GaAs varactor diodes (M/A-COM ML46580). A 360-MHz tuning range is obtained with an output power of 0-3.1 dBm. The fundamental rejection is around 17 dB for a wide range of collector bias current. The phase noise is below -103 dBc/Hz at 100-kHz offset and below -122 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz for the entire tuning bandwidth.     

Dual-frequency operation of CPW-fed antenna controlled by pindiodes

pin diode control is used to obtain a dual-band operation of a capacitively coupled patch antenna fed by a coplanar waveguide (CPW). The beam-lead pin diodes are inserted in the excitation slot and reduce the coupling length of the slot in their ON state. The frequency ratio of the two operating frequencies is 1.22 at 4.0 GHz. Details of the antenna design and experimental results are presented and discussed     

Superconducting Ti/TiN Thin Films for mm-Wave Absorption

Polarization-sensitive detectors at 120–500 GHz are required for the observation of the cosmic microwave background radiation. In this paper, superconducting thin films based on Ti/TiN bilayers are developed to be integrated as electromagnetic wave absorbers in suspended cooled silicon bolometers. The critical temperature (T_c) is tuned in the range of 600–800 mK through the superconductivity proximity effect between Ti and TiN to optimize the absorption of the incident power while minimizing the heat capacity of the system at low temperature. Ti/TiN bilayer samples are fabricated on silicon with two different thicknesses (100/5 and 300/5 nm). Electrical characterizations at low temperature have been performed and revealed the effect of thermal annealing (20–250 °C) on residual stress, T_c, critical magnetic field (H_c) and resistance above T_c. A physical characterization by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy provides evidences of oxidized states which may explain these effects.     

An X- to ku-band 3-bit digital MEMS varactor

A 3-bit digital microelectromechanical system (MEMS) varactor bank is demonstrated on a low-cost glass substrate. It is composed of three discrete-position varactors, each of them achieving a capacitance ratio close to 3:1. The total capacitance of the varactor bank is tunable from 146 fF to 430 fF in eight states and is suitable for X- or Ku-band operation. The design can be easily scaled to Ka-band frequencies.     

Diversity Measurements of a Reconfigurable Antenna With Switched Polarizations and Patterns

A reconfigurable parasitic patch array is designed to provide polarization and pattern diversities. The performance of the device is predicted using a commercial simulator including a pin diode modelling and an optimization procedure of the switched loads based on an equivalent flow graph. Measurements of the correlation factor and the diversity gain in an indoor environment are performed with a dedicated platform for two orientations of the antenna.     

Circularly polarised microstrip arrays built on polymethacrylateimide foam

A new type of foam is proposed as a basic substrate for printed arrays operating in the X-band and above. As an example, 2×2 and 4×4 circularly polarised (CP) microstrip arrays are designed at 11 GHz showing an axial ratio (AR) bandwidth greater than 10% with excellent gain and return loss performances     

Control of parallel-plate modes in microstrip antennas fed by conductor-backed coplanar waveguides

This paper evaluates the substrate characteristics allowing the control of parallel-plate modes (PPMs) in microstrip antennas fed by conductor-backed coplanar waveguides. The ratio between the radiated power and the power lost in PPMs is correlated with return loss measurements. General rules based on the calculation of the power ratio are given to avoid spurious effects due to PPMs. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 8: 398–404, 1998