Wideband and high isolation RF carrier-aggregated switch module for LTE-Advanced base station

Liu, Jianyu; Chang, Wen-Chien

doi:10.1109/eumc.2016.7824438

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Another example of the demanding use of switches is given by carrier aggregation (CA), which is a key feature of the LTE-advanced and 5G standards. CA imposes extremely tight new specifications in terms of operational bandwidth, insertion loss, isolation, linearity and power handling [2]. Traditionally, GaAs p-HEMT and silicon-on-sapphire technologies have been preferred for switch design due to their superior substrate isolation [3,4], which was not possible on silicon.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Substrate-Induced Dissipative and Non-Linear Effects in RF Switches: Probing Ultimate Performance Based on Laser-Machined Membrane Suspension

et al. 2022

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With the evolution of radio frequency (RF)/microwave technology, there is a demand for circuits that are able to meet highly challenging RF front end specifications. Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology is one of the leading platforms for upcoming wireless generation. The degradation of performance due to substrate coupling is a key problem to address for telecommunication circuits, especially for the high throw count switches in RF front ends. In this context, a fast, flexible and local laser ablation technique of the silicon handler allows for the membrane suspension of large millimeter-scale circuits. This approach enables the evaluation of the ultimate performance in the absence of the substrate, i.e., without dissipative losses and substrate-induced non-linear effects, on capacitive comb coupling structures and RF switches. Compared to high-resistivity SOI substrates, the high frequency characterization of RF membrane switches reveals a superior linearity performance with a reduction in second and third harmonics by 17.7 dB and 7.8 dB, respectively. S-parameter analysis also reveals that membrane suspension entails insertion losses that are improved by 0.38 dB and signal reflection lowered by 4 dB due to a reduced off-state capacitance. With reference to a trap-rich substrate, the membrane suspension also achieves an additional 7.8 dB reduction in the second harmonic, indicating that there is still scope for improvement in this figure of merit. The obtained results demonstrate a new way to evaluate optimized circuit performance using post-fabrication substrate engineering.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%