High-Q integrated RF passives and RF-MEMS on silicon
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High-Q integrated RF passives and RF-MEMS on silicon Joost T.M. van Beek1, Marc H.W.M. van Delden1, Auke van Dijken1, Patrick van Eerd1, Andre B.M. Jansman1, Anton L.A.M. Kemmeren1, Theo G.S.M. Rijks1, Peter G. Steeneken1, Jaap den Toonder1, Mathieu J.E. Ulenaers1, Arnold den Dekker2, Pieter Lok2, Nick Pulsford2, Freek van Straten2, Lenhard van Teeffelen2, Jeroen de Coster3, and Robert Puers3 1 Philips Research, Prof. Holstlaan 4, 5656 AA Eindhoven, The Netherlands 2 Philips Semiconductors, Gerstweg 2, 6534 AE Nijmegen, The Netherlands 3 Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Dept. Electrical Engineering ESAT-MICAS, Belgium ABSTRACT A technology platform is described for the integration of low-loss inductors, capacitors, and MEMS capacitors on a high-resistivity Si substrate. Using this platform the board space area taken up by e.g. a DCS PA output impedance matching circuit can be reduced by 50%. The losses of passive components that are induced by the semi-conducting Si substrate can effectively be suppressed using a combination of surface amorphisation and the use of poly crystalline Si substrates. A MEM switchable capacitor with a capacitance switching factor of 40 and an actuation voltage of 5V is demonstrated. A continuous tuneable dual-gap capacitor is demonstrated with a tuning ratio of 9 using actuation voltages below 15V.
INTRODUCTION Integration of passive components and radio frequency micro electro-mechanical systems (RFMEMS) in RF front-end modules is one of the key enablers for the miniaturization and performance enhancement of mobile wireless systems, as used in e.g. mobile phones, PDA’s, wireless headsets, handheld GPS, and mobile television. In all these wireless systems there is a strong demand for low power consumption, multi-band and multi-mode capability, and small foot print of the radio module. Conventional wireless systems are for a large part built-up out of discrete inductors, capacitors, varactor diodes, and FET switches, rather than monolithically integrated onto a single chip. This inherently leads to a large module size and inaccurate impedance matching (power loss) between the different components. The integration of RFMEMS switchable and tuneable capacitors, with their excellent RF performance and ultra-low power consumption, together with the monolithic integration of high-Q inductors and capacitors is expected to overcome the “integration bottleneck” of wireless systems to a large extent. The integration of on-chip passive components along with active elements has been hampered by the low quality-factor Q, especially for inductors, that can be achieved in today’s CMOS and Bipolar technologies. Furthermore, it is doubtful whether on-chip integration of passive networks can be done in a cost effective manner due to their large size. An alternative for the on-chip integration of passives is the system-in-a-package approach [1]. Using this approach the passives are integrated on a chip using a dedicated technology, which is then combined with active IC’s in a modular fashion. In this
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