Alumina and LTCC Technology for RF MEMS Switches and True Time Delay Lines

Buttiglione, R.; Catoni, S.; Angelis, Giorgio De; Dispenza, M.; Fiorello, Anna Maria; Kautio, Kari; Ladhes, M.; Marcelli, R.; Rönkä, Kari

doi:10.1109/emicc.2008.4772305

Cited by 4 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…The TTD lines fabricated on GaAs and Si substrates [1], [2] provide a very small group delay within an acceptable insertion loss, in other words, they have poor FOM values. The TTD lines built on alumina and LTCC [3], [4] have a low FOM value due to a low substrate loss. However, the alumina and LTCC are substrates used for the system-level passive device fabrication and system integration, they are not suitable TABLE II COMPARISON OF REPORTED TTD LINES AND OUR WORK for chip-level device fabrication.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In modern portable communication systems, many desirable features are required for the delay lines, such as compact size, integration with monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC), constant and large delay, low insertion loss, and zero or low control power or voltage. Various topologies were used to build delay lines for the microwave circuits and systems, including RF MEMS with microstrip line on GaAs, alumina, and LTCC substrates [1]- [4], ferroelectric varactor with coplanar strip (CPS) line on high resistivity Si substrate [5], superconducting coplanr waveguide (CPW) line and coplanar double-spiral meander line on substrate [6], right/left-handed transmission line on PCB substrate [7], spiral microstrip line on InP substrate [8], shielded CPW line on GaAs substrate [9], and polyimide core micro-coaxial line on Si substrate [10].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A 390 ps On-Wafer True-Time-Delay Line Developed by a Novel Micro-Coax Technology

Tian

Lee

Wang

2014

IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett.

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A CMOS-compatible on-wafer true-time-delay (TTD) line for broadband microwave applications is demonstrated using a novel micro-coax technology. The insertion loss of the developed TTD line is less than 2.55 dB for a constant group delay of 390 ps from dc to 40 GHz, without control power or control voltage. To the best of our knowledge, the fabricated micro-coaxial TTD line provides the best figures-of-merit (FOM) value (0.00641 dB/ps at 40 GHz) among reported on-wafer TTD lines. Index Terms-Broadband, figures-of-merit (FOM), monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC), phase shifters, true-timedelay (TTD) line.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 390 ps On-Wafer True-Time-Delay Line Developed by a Novel Micro-Coax Technology

Tian

Lee

Wang

2014

IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett.

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“…A comprehensive overview of early digital millimeter-wave phase shifters is given in [1]. State of the art results were reported from many groups [2][3][4][5][6]. At E-band (77 GHz), insertion loss amounts to about 1.75 dB per bit [7] (or, 5.8 dB for 3 bits [8]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Concepts for millimeter‐wave waveguide‐MEMS phase shifters

Hesselbarth

Vahldieck

2010

Micro & Optical Tech Letters

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“…MEMS devices such as switches [13][14][15] and varactors [16,17] are fabricated on a variety of materials including silicon, gallium arsenide, silicon dioxide, LTCC, and ceramic.…”

Section: Mems Devicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Field Programmable Microwave Substrate

Jess¹

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This thesis describes a research project to create a programmable microwave circuit having a similar level of programmability as that of a field programmable gate array (FPGA). The result of the thesis is the realization of the first ever practical low-loss programmable microwave waveguides. Since waveguides are a key component in any microwave circuit, this allows for the realization of a broad range of microwave functions with a single circuit. The programmable waveguides are implemented in what is referred to as a field programmable microwave substrate. The programmable substrate is implemented using metamaterials between two parallel metal plates. Between the metal plates are electrically small unit cells that consist of metal structuring that connects with active components not contained between the metal plates (i.e. above or below the metal plates). Each of these unit cells can be programmed to have a range of positive dielectric constants or a negative dielectric constant. Programming a positive dielectric constant core and negative dielectric constant sidewall yields a structure that can be described using the slab waveguide equations. This allows for waveguides to be dynamically programmed within the field programmable microwave substrate.The theory required to design low-loss metamaterials is presented and used to realize two prototype circuits. The first implementation is on an FR4 substrate and is used to demonstrate low-loss waveguides, amplifiers and oscillators from 0.9 − ii 3GH z. The other field programmable microwave substrate is implemented in low temperature co-fired ceramic and uses custom designed CMOS chips. This version is used to demonstrate miniaturization. The losses of the waveguides are high, but this is mainly due to manufacturing capabilities of the process used. Low-loss small field programmable microwave substrates should be possible to implement with the use of higher performance components and more sophisticated manufacturing processes.iii First, I would like to thank my thesis supervisors Barry Syrett and Langis Roy for their support and allowing me the freedom to pursue my own interests and curiosities. I would also like to thank the support staff in the department of electronics;notably, Nagui Mikhail, Scott Bruce, Blazenka Power, Anna Lee, and Sylvie Beekmans. I would also like to thank Professor Steve McGarry for many practical conversations and assistance. There are numerous fellow grad students that I would like to thank. Tyler Ross and Che Knisely were excellent for chatting with on technical issues and great for helping solve problems. Thomas Pepler provided a significant amount of assistance implementing the digital CMOS circuit for one of my designs.Ryan Griffin helped debug some circuits during testing. A general thanks goes out to the graduate students in the blue room who have made doing a PhD a pleasant experience. Finally, I would like to thank my family and wonderful girlfriend Jessica Lynch for all their support over the years.iv

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Alumina and LTCC Technology for RF MEMS Switches and True Time Delay Lines

Cited by 4 publications

References 3 publications

A 390 ps On-Wafer True-Time-Delay Line Developed by a Novel Micro-Coax Technology

A 390 ps On-Wafer True-Time-Delay Line Developed by a Novel Micro-Coax Technology

Concepts for millimeter‐wave waveguide‐MEMS phase shifters

The Field Programmable Microwave Substrate

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