The topics covered by Technical Committee MTT-21 “MEMS Components and Technologies,” cover a wide range of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and micromachining technologies as applied to RF devices, components, and systems.
Electronic devices considered by the committee include MEMS switches and resonators, and micromachined integrated passive components such as inductors, capacitors, varactors, and transmission lines. These devices often serve as the key control components needed for circuits such as phase shifters and tunable filters, and may enable new classes of reconfigurable antennas. Often these critical circuits are enabled by the high performance and high linearity offered by MEMS. Circuits using MEMS are expected to have an impact on a wide variety of RF systems, including phased-array antennas for radars and receiver front ends for communications.
The emphasis of this committee is on the present issues which arise as the technology matures and becomes mainstream. These issues include design, fabrication, electromechanical and electromagnetic modeling, testing, packaging, and reliability.
The committee coordinates activities related to RF-MEMS within the IEEE MTT community. We meet (typically) once yearly during the week of the International Microwave Symposium, where we explore themes for upcoming workshops, special sessions, and panel sessions, and volunteer to develop these ideas into proposals for the upcoming year’s Symposium.
As RF-MEMS and micromachining technology are quite multi-disciplinary in nature, the activities of this committee are often sponsored with other MTT Technical Committees, such as MTT-1 (Computer-Aided Design), MTT-12 (Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Packaging and Manufacturing), and MTT-15 (Microwave Field Theory).
Technical Committee MTT-21 has sponsored the following workshops, tutorials, short courses, and panel sessions at the IMS:
| IMS | Title | Organizers | Session |
| 2009 Boston |
Emerging Applications of RF MEMS | Pierre Blondy Gabriel Rebeiz |
Full Day Workshop |
| RF MEMS Testing Reliability and Power Handling | John Ebel Dan Hyman |
Half Day Workshop | |
| Click here for the Workshops, Tutorials, and Panel Sessions held during previous IMS |
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The following talks are available to IEEE MTT Chapters, Sections, and other interested groups. Please contact the speaker directly to schedule a talk.
Three Dimensional Millimeter Wave Circuits Dr. J. Robert Reid Air Force Research Laboratory Hanscom AFB, MA James.Reid@hanscom.af.mil 781.377.1077 Abstract:
This presentation covers the design and realization of microwave and
millimeter-wave circuits using three dimensional metal micro-machining
processes. Circuits fabricated using these process have several
advantages over competing technologies. One particularly
important advantage is the ability to realize TEM transmission lines
that operate from DC to over 300 GHz and can be arbitrarily routed on a
substrate. These lines are fully enclosed providing high isolation even
at millimeter wave frequencies. A second advantage is the ability to
accurately reproduce a wide variety of circuits including couplers and
filters. Topics covered in this presentation will include the
fabrication processes, circuit design and implementation, and the
advantages and disadvantages of this new technology. |
RF MEMS Devices Using Piezoelectric Thin Films Dr. Ronald G. Polcawich US Army Research Laboratory Adelphi, MD rpolcawich@arl.army.mil 301.394.1275 Abstract: Piezoelectricity is an extremely important physical phenomenon and in ceramic form has been widely used in sensors, actuators, and transducers. Piezoelectric thin film applications have been limited in the past with a majority of efforts emphasizing lower performance materials such as ZnO and AlN because of their ability to be easily integrated with standard microelectronics fabrication. However, a special class of functional materials, ferroelectrics, possesses a tremendous potential in new MEMS devices and has seen increasing research interest in recent years. Of particular interest is the use of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin films for actuators. Recently, PZT actuators have been successfully integrated to yield RF MEMS switches capable of operating at less than 10 volts. |
Distributed RF-MEMS Circuits Prof. N. Scott Barker University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA barker@virginia.edu 434.924.6783 Abstract: In order to reduce the packaging requirements for RF-MEMS devices we have developed a switched capacitor technology with minimal contact. Although this switched capacitor design results in a reduced capacitance ratio in the range of 5-10 we have also developed circuit designs for phase shifters and tunable matching networks (and the same can be done with filters) which do not require a capacitance ratio over 10. In addition to packaging, another Achilles' heel for RF-MEMS has been the uncertainty in pull-down voltages due to residual stress that is built into the beam during fabrication. We have successfully identified the major contribution of this stress to thin-film gold beams and are now able to routinely fabricate thin-film (< 1 micron thick) gold cantilevers with almost zero tip deflection upon release, and fixed-fixed beams with a pull-down voltage that nearly matches the analytical model without the need for adding on an unknown stress term. |
Distributed RF-MEMS Circuits Prof. Shiban K. Koul Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India s.k.koul@ieee.org +919811209829 Abstract: Micromachining has been applied to microwave and millimeter wave field to create low loss and high performance passive/active components and antennas. In this talk, starting from Modeling of transmission lines and discontinuities, design procedure to realize passive components will be presented. Next, design, modeling and fabrication of different types of micromachined antennas will be described. Methodology for the design, development and fabrication of RF MEMS switches on GaAs will then be presented. The schemes for developing reconfigurable RF MEMS circuits using either variable capacitors or RF MEMS switches will be discussed. The reconfigurable circuits include: a band pass filter, band stop filter, high isolation switch and a patch antenna. |
