RF MEMS--Enabling Technology for Millimeter-Waves

Youngwoo KWON
Sanghyo LEE

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics   Vol.E89-C    No.7    pp.898-905
Publication Date: 2006/07/01
Online ISSN: 1745-1353
DOI: 10.1093/ietele/e89-c.7.898
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: Special Section INVITED PAPER (Special Section on Heterostructure Microelectronics with TWHM2005)
Category: 
Keyword: 
MEMS,  millimeter-wave,  micromachining,  passive device,  

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Summary: 
This paper presents high-performance millimeter-wave passive devices using MEMS technology. The purpose of this paper is to show the possibility of MEMS technology as an enabling technology for millimeter-waves. The loss and cost issues, which have been the inherent barrier for commercialization of mm-waves, can be solved by RF MEMS technology. Successful demonstrations of MEMS technology for mm-waves include novel CPW transmission lines, digital impedance tuners, analog tunable band-pass filters, reconfigurable low-pass filters, V-band digital distributed phase shifters and 2-D mechanical beam-steering antennas. All these circuits were implemented for 30-65 GHz frequency range, and show the state-of-the-art performance, which is beyond the limit set by the conventional technology.