Proceedings of the 3rd European Microwave Integrated Circuits Conference

Phase Shifter Design Based on Fast RF MEMS

Switched Capacitors
Benjamin Lacroix 1 , Arnaud Pothier 2 , Aurelian Crunteanu 3 , Pierre Blondy 4
XLIM UMR 6172 - Universite de Limoges / CNRS
123 avenue Albert Thomas 87060 Limoges cedex FRANCE
1
[email protected]
2
[email protected]
3
[email protected]
4
[email protected]

Abstract This paper presents the design and fabrication

of fast DMTL RF MEMS phase shifters. Distributed MEMS
Transmission Lines are being used with miniature RF MEMS
switched capacitors (40x40 m2 ), actuating at 25 V with a
switching time around 1 s. Both 90 and 180 degree phase
shifters presented here operate at 20 GHz, are respectively less
than 4.5 mm and 8.5 mm long. They are designed with 6 and 12
unit cells to achieve the desired phase shift. Measured return loss
is respectively better than 13 dB and 11 dB for the 90 and
the 180 degree phase shifters, and insertion loss is respectively
less than 0.8 dB and 1.8 dB at 20 GHz.
(a) (b)
I. I NTRODUCTION
Fig. 1. Miniature RF MEMS switched capacitors (40x40 m2 ): (a)
The design and optimization of Distributed MEMS Trans- photograph and (a) cross-view section
mission Lines have been widely explained in the past few years
[1][5]. DMTL may be intensively used for microwave sys-
tems such as phased array antennas [6], broadcasting systems As shown in [13], one way to achieve submicrosecond
[7], matching networks [8] [9] and impedance tuners [10], or switching times for RF MEMS switched capacitors is to
tunable filters applications [11]. The principle is to periodically miniaturize their mechanical structure. Miniature beams are
load a coplanar transmission line (CPW), using MEMS air less senstive to temperature variation and charging in the
bridges between ground planes. When MEMS capacitors are dielectric layer since their spring constants around 10 times
actuated, a phase shift is obtained since the wave velocity of higher than standard beams ensure high pull-up pressure. They
the CPW line is decreased. are also less sensitive to residual stress. Indeed, for a fixed-
However, when fast phase shifting is required, MEMS fixed beam, the spring constant k is the sum of a component k 0
cannot achieve fast switching times as semiconductors com- mainly depending on the bridge geometry and a component
ponents like FET or PIN diodes, even if they dont offer as k 00 relying on the residual stress induced by the fabrication
good performance such as RF MEMS. process. Fig. 2 presents the weight of k 0 and k 00 for 10 m
Sub-microsecond fast switching times have been demon- wide and 0.35 m thick bridges, with a residual stress of 10
strated by miniature RF MEMS switched capacitors [12][14]. M P a. The residual stress component is only 25% of the total
This work presents a topology of two 90 and 180 degree spring constant for 40 m long beams whereas it is 90% for
DMTL phase shifters loaded with miniature MEMS capacitors 300 m long beams. Miniature structures can also achieve
actuating at 25 V with a measured switching time of 1.2 s. fast switching times as shown by Fig. 3, where a 40 m long
bridge is in theory able to switch around 700 ns.
II. M INIATURE RF MEMS S WITCHED C APACITORS
A. Miniature RF MEMS and switching speed B. Switching time measurement
A miniature RF MEMS switched capacitor has been de- The switching time of these miniature MEMS RF switched
signed and fabricated. Fig. 1 presents a photograph of two capacitors has been measured with a specific bench, presented
switched capacitors implemented on a coplanar waveguide in [13] and [15]. The principle consists in detecting an
line and a cross-view section of the capacitor. These beams amplitude modulation of the continuous wave signal applied
are 40x40 m2 and 350 nm thick, and are suspended 1 m to the component since the impedance of the line is decreased
above a contact electrode covered by a 400 nm thick alumina when the bridges actuate. First, a 10 Hz monopolar square
(Al2 O3 ) dielectric layer. signal is applied to the bridge and is increased until the pull-

978-2-87487-007-1 2008 EuMA 478 October 2008, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

 Fig. 4. Measured switching time of a unit cell
Fig. 2. Variation of the spring constant components
TABLE I
C OPLANAR WAVEGUIDE PARAMETERS W ITH Z0 = 85

W/G 80/60 m
r /ef f 3.78/2.39
RLmax 15 dB
fb 46 GHz
s 660 m
Zu /Zd 59.8/41.8
Cup /Cdown 126/40.7 f F
15 deg.
n90 /n180 6/12

The length s of a unit cell depends on the Bragg frequency

fb chosen by the designer and is given by Eq. 2:
Fig. 3. Switching time versus bridge length
Zd c
s= (2)
fb Z0 ef f
in voltage Vp is measured (Vp = 24V ). Next, the signal
amplitude is amplified to 40 V and the modulation induced where :
by the actuation of the bridge is detected. The accuracy of Zd is the loaded-line impedance at the down-state posi-

the measured switching time depends on the microsecond tion,

range rise time on the applied actuation voltage induced by c is the speed of light in vacuum,

the low frequency amplifier. Fig. 4 shows a typical switching fb is the Bragg frequency,

time measurement for our switched capacitor. We estimate the ef f is the effective dielectric constant.

switching time is around 1.2 s. Table I presents the different parameters of the designed
In the next part, we show how to implement these miniature phase shifter operating at 20 GHz. The coplanar waveguide
RF MEMS switched capacitors to fabricate two 1-bit 90 line is built on a quartz substrate (r = 3.78, tan =
and 180 degree Distributed MEMS Transmission Lines phase 0.0009) with a characteristic impedance Z0 of 85 (W/G =
shifters. 80m/60m). The maximum return loss desired RLmax and
the Bragg frequency fb are chosen to be respectively 15 dB
III. D ESIGN OF A FAST DMTL P HASE S HIFTER and 46 GHz, resulting in a spacing s of 660 m, found with
The principle of the DMTL phase shifter presented here Eq. 2. The up-state and down-state loaded-line impedances are
is to cascade n (6 or 12) unit cells each loaded by two 59.8 and 41.8 with up- and down- state capacitances Cup
fast miniature RF MEMS switched capacitors to provide an and Cdown respectively of 40.7 f F and 126 f F for each unit
impedance transformation, allowing a phase shift along the cell, resulting in a phase shift of 15 degrees, calculated
total length of the line. The desired phase shift (90 or 180 with Eq. 1. 6 and 12 cascaded unit cells are respectively
degrees) is obtained by cascading n. phase shift unit cells, required to achieve the total desired 90 and 180 degree phase
where is given by Eq. 1: shift.
A. Unit Cell

360f sZ0 ef f
 
1 1 40 m miniature bridges cannot link ground planes over
= degrees/section (1)
c Zu Zd the transmission line as in standard designs, due to their small

479
 Fig. 5. The designed unit cell

(a)

Fig. 6. Picture of the designed 90 degree phase shifter (6 cells)

length. Fig. 5 shows a picture and a SEM photograph of the

designed 660 m long unit cell. Two miniature RF MEMS
switches capacitors allow to achieve the desired up- and down-
state capacitances. In down state, each capacitor contacts a 20
m wide finger of the signal line covered by a dielectric layer.
The CPW is terminated with 50 tappers for probe pads. This
unit cell is designed to achieve a 15 degree phase shift at 20
GHz. (b)

B. 90 and 180 degrees sections

By cascading 6 unit cells, a 90 degree phase shift section is
obtained, as shown Fig. 6. A 180 degree phase shift section is
also obtained by cascading 12 unit cells. The dimensions of
both 90 and 180 degree phase shift sections are respectively
4.43x0.49 mm2 and 8.39x0.49 mm2 . All bridges are simul-
taneously actuated through the CPW transmission line, but 90
and 180 degree sections can be cascaded to create a multibit
phase shifter.

IV. RF M EASUREMENTS
Insertion loss, return loss and phase shift measurements for
(c)
both 90 and 180 degree phase shifters have been done with a
HP 8722ES network analyzer using a Single-Open-Load-Thru Fig. 7. Measured and modeled (a) return loss, (b) insertion loss, and (c)
calibration technique. The results are presented Fig. 7 and Fig. phase shift of the 90 degree phase shifter (6 cells)
8. For the 90 degree phase shifter, return loss less than 13
dB and a 95.3 degree phase shift have been measured at 20
switched RF MEMS capacitors actuating at 25 V with a
GHz. Insertion loss is better than 0.8 dB at up- and down-
measured switching time of 1.2 s. We have fabricated two
state positions.
90 and 180 degree 1-bit phase shifters and measured good
For the 180 degree phase shifter, return loss is less than
return loss (respectively 13 dB and 11 dB) and insertion
11 dB for a 173.5 degree measured phase shift at the
loss (respectively better than 0.8 dB and 1.8 dB). These 1-bit
operation frequency. Insertion loss is better than 1.8 dB at both
sections can be cascaded to obtain a multibit phase shifter.
states. For each phase shifter, miniature RF MEMS switched
The principle of fast DMTL shown in this paper can also be
capacitors are actuated with a 25 V unipolar bias voltage.
applied to matching networks or impedance tuners.
V. C ONCLUSIONS
We have demonstrated a novel topology of Distributed
MEMS Transmission Lines phase shifters with miniature

480
 [5] G. L. Tan, R. E. Mihailovich, J. B. Hacker, J. B. DeNatale, and G. M.
Rebeiz, A Very-Low-Loss 2-Bit X-Band RF MEMS Phase Shifter,
IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest, vol. 1, pp.
333335, Jun 2002.
[6] Y. J. Ko, J. Y. Park, and J. U. Bu, Integrated 3-Bit RF MEMS Phase
Shifter With Constant Phase Shift for Active Phased Array Antennas
in Satellite Broadcasting Systems, 12th International Conference on
Transducers, Solid-State Sensors, Actuators ans Microsystems, vol. 2,
pp. 17881791, Jun 2003.
[7] Y. J. Ko, J. Y. Park, H. T. Kim, and J. U. Bu, Integrated Five-
Bit RF MEMS Phase Shifter for Satellite Broadcasting/Communication
Systems, IEEE The Sixteenth Annual International Conference on
Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, pp. 144148, Jan 2003.
[8] T. Vaha-Heikkila and G. M. Rebeiz, A 20-50 GHz Reconfigurable
Matching Network for Power Amplifier Applications, IEEE MTT-S
International Microwave Symposium Digest, vol. 2, pp. 717720, Jun
(a) 2006.
[9] S. Qin and N. S. Barker, Distributed MEMS Tunable Matching Net-
work Using Minimal-Contact RF-MEMS Varactors, IEEE Trans. on
Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 54, pp. 26462658, Jun 2006.
[10] T. Vaha-Heikkila, J. Varis, J. Tuovinen, and G. M. Rebeiz, A 20-50
GHz RF MEMS single-stub impedance tuner, IEEE Microwave and
Wireless Components Letters, vol. 15, pp. 205207, Apr 2005.
[11] Y. Liu, A. Borgioli, A. Nagra, and R. A. York, Distributed MEMS
Transmission Lines for Tunable Filter Applications, Int. J. RF Mi-
crowave CAE, vol. 11, pp. 254260, Aug 2001.
[12] D. Mercier, K. V. Caekenberghe, and G. M. Rebeiz, Miniature RF
MEMS switched capacitors, IEEE MTT-S International Microwave
Symposium Digest, vol. 3, pp. 19311934, Jun 2005.
[13] B. Lacroix, A. Pothier, A. Crunteanu, and P. Blondy, Sub-Microsecond
RF MEMS Switched Capacitors, IEEE Trans. on Microwave Theory
and Techniques, vol. 55, pp. 13141321, Jun 2007.
[14] B. Lakshminarayanan and G. M. Rebeiz, High-Power High-Reliability
Sub-Microsecond RF MEMS Switched Capacitors, IEEE MTT-S Inter-
national Microwave Symposium Digest, pp. 18011804, Jun 2007.
(b) [15] D. Mercier, A. Pothier, and P. Blondy, Monitoring mechanical charac-
teristics of MEMS switches with a microwave test bench, 4th round
table on micro and nano technologies for space, Jun 2003.

(c)

Fig. 8. Measured (a) return loss, (b) insertion loss, and (c) phase shift of
the 180 degree phase shifter (12 cells)

R EFERENCES

[1] N. S. Barker and G. M. Rebeiz, Distributed MEMS True-Time Delay

Phase Shifters and Wide-Band Switches, IEEE Trans. on Microwave
Theory and Techniques, vol. 46, pp. 18811890, Nov 1998.
[2] N. Barker and G. Rebeiz, Optimization of Distributed MEMS Phase
Shifters, IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest,
vol. 1, pp. 299302, Jun 1999.
[3] G. M. Rebeiz, G. L. Tan, and J. S. Hayden, RF MEMS Phase Shifters:
Design and Applications, IEEE Microwave Magazine, vol. 3, pp. 72
81, Jun 2002.
[4] J. S. Hayden, A. Malczewski, J. Kleber, C. L. Goldsmith, and G. M.
Rebeiz, 2 and 4-Bit DC-18 GHz Microstrip MEMS Distributed Phase
Shifters, IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest,
vol. 1, pp. 219222, May 2001.

481