| The development of RF MEMS technology has accelerated considerably over the past several years. RF MEMS technology provides immense capabilities for a new generation of reconfigurable networks such as phase shifters, matching networks, antennas and tunable filters used in wireless/satellite communication systems, automotive/defense radar systems and instrumentation equipment. RF MEMS switched capacitors are very good candidates as tuning elements for reconfigurable networks: They provide wide tuning range, very high-Q, excellent linearity, high RF power handling capability and their DC power consumption is negligible.; The focus of this thesis is the development of wideband RF MEMS tunable filters. The thesis presents the first 6--10 GHz miniaturized lumped element RF MEMS tunable filter with excellent linearity, low loss, impedance match over the tuning range, and very fine frequency scanning resolution (less than 1 dB crossovers between the 16 different tunable filter steps). The thesis also presents the first 12--18 GHz coplanar-waveguide slow-wave resonator RF MEMS filter with also excellent linearity, very fine frequency resolution, reasonable match over the tuning range and very small size (8 mm x 4 mm). RF MEMS devices must also be packaged and encapsulated in a stable environment for high reliability, and the wafer-scale packaging technique is a well proven solution. The thesis presents a microstrip wafer-scale package for DC-26 GHz applications with very low insertion loss and an impedance match better than -20 dB over the entire band. Also, the impact of RF MEMS, BST and GaAs reconfigurable networks on the systems-level performance such as spectral re-growth in WCDMA signals is discussed. The thesis concludes with future projects involving RF MEMS tunable filters, packaging and reconfigurable systems. |
