Development of a wide tuning range MEMS tunable capacitor for wireless communication systems Conference Paper

abstract

• We present results on the development of a novel micromachined parallel-plate tunable capacitor with a wide tuning range. Different from conventional two-parallel-plate tunable capacitors, this novel tunable capacitor consists of one suspended top plate and two fixed bottom plates. One of the two fixed plates and the top plate form a variable capacitor, where as the other fixed plate and the top plate are used to provide electrostatic actuation for capacitance tuning. For the fabricated prototype tunable capacitors, a maximum controllable tuning range of 69.8% has been achieved experimentally, exceeding the theoretical tuning range limit (50%) of conventional two-parallel-plate tunable capacitors. This novel tunable capacitor also exhibits very low return loss (< 0.6dB between 45 MHz and 10GHz). Its fabrication process is completely compatible with the existing standard IC (integrated circuit) fabrication technology, which makes it useful in integrated wireless communication systems.

name of conference

• International Electron Devices Meeting 2000. Technical Digest. IEDM (Cat. No.00CH37138)

authors

• Zou, Jun

published proceedings

• International Electron Devices Meeting 2000. Technical Digest. IEDM (Cat. No.00CH37138)

author list (cited authors)

• Zou, J., Liu, C., Schutt-Aine, J., Chen, J., & Kang, S.

citation count

• 66

complete list of authors

• Zou, Jun||Liu, Chang||Schutt-Aine, J||Chen, Jinghong||Kang, Sung-Mo

publication date

• January 2000

publisher

• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)  Publisher

published in

• International Electron Devices Meeting  Journal

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1109/iedm.2000.904341

start page

• 403

end page

• 406

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/iedm.2000.904341