Development of a wide-tuning-range two-parallel-plate tunable capacitor for integrated wireless communication systems
✍ Scribed by Jun Zou; Chang Liu; José E. Schutt-Ainé
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2001
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 632 KB
- Volume
- 11
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1096-4290
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✦ Synopsis
This paper reports on the development of a micromachined parallel-plate tunable capacitor with a wide tuning range. Different from conventional two-parallel-plate tunable capacitors, this tunable capacitor consists of one suspended top plate and two fixed bottom plates. One fixed plate and the top plate form a variable capacitor, while the other one provides necessary electrostatic actuation. Among the fabricated prototype devices, a maximum controllable tuning range of 69.8%@1 MHz has been obtained experimentally, ( ) exceeding the theoretical limit 50% of conventional two-parallel-plate tunable capacitors.
( ) A component quality factor Q of 30@5 GHz and a self-resonant frequency far beyond 5 GHz have been achieved. The fabrication process is compatible with the existing standard ( ) IC integrated circuit technology, which makes it suitable for integrated wireless communication applications.