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 |
| 2010 Anaheim |
Recent Advances in Reconfigurable Filters | D. Peroulis R. Mansour |
Full Day Workshop |
| RF MEMS for Antennas and Integrated RF Front End | J. Papapolymerou H. De Los Santos |
Full Day Workshop | |
| Click here for the Workshops, Tutorials, and Panel Sessions held during previous IMS |
|||
The following talks are available to IEEE MTT Chapters, Sections, and other interested groups. Please contact the speaker directly to schedule a talk.
Metamaterial-Based Micro-Electromechanical Ultra-Compact Non-Dispersive Phase Shifters Prof. James C. M. Hwang Abstract: Recent advances in metamaterials allow non-dispersive phase shifters to be realized, which will greatly simplify the operation of frequency-agile and broadband-modulated phased-array radar and communications systems. Dispersion is only natural, so the phase of a conventional true-time-delay phase shifter varies with frequency. However, by judiciously combining right-handed natural material and left-handed metamaterial with different dispersion characteristics, a phase shifter can have constant phase shift across a wide bandwidth. For example, a composite right/left-handed (CRLH) transmission line can be formed by combining fixed inductors with variable capacitors. The CRLH transmission line can then assume right- or left-handed characteristics depending on the values of the variable capacitors. The variable capacitors can be based on micro-electromechanical (MEM) capacitive switches, which can be monolithically integrated in a CRLH transmission line to realize non-dispersive phased shifters that are light, compact, low loss, low cost, and low power consumption. The additional degrees of freedom afforded by the MEM switches also allow a slow-wave structure to be tightly wrapped around the MEM switches to further reduce the size and loss of the phase shifter while maintaining wideband impedance match. Experimental results obtained on a Ku-band phase-shifter unit cell will be used to illustrate these design principles and performance advantages. |
High Q Linear Tunable Filters using RF-MEMS Switched Capacitors Arrays |
RF-MEMS for Agile Mobile Terminals DR. Art Morris Wispry Irvine, CA 92618 art.morris@wispry.com Abstract: RF-MEMS have been under development for over 20 years. While they have made tremendous technical progress, only non-contacting resonators have progressed to high volume production. Cost, control, reproducibility and reliability have prevented their wide application. We present a process and design solution which has been developed and implemented in a CMOS production foundry to address these barriers. The process includes CMOS logic, high voltage CMOS, multi-level interconnect, RF-MEMS devices and thin-film sealing. Designs include various RF-MEMS devices and control electronics. Current product status and test results will be presented along with a development roadmap leading to fully tunable RF front-ends. |
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. |
