RF MEMS Smart tuners Using

MEMS Variable Capacitors

By
Danial Sadiq
CSU ID: 831636359
 • Switches, Antennas and variable capacitors are
important building blocks of radio frequency
integrated circuits (RFICs).
• (RF MEMS) can provide low loss even at
The NEED elevated frequencies
• Inherently high linearity, since RF MEMS
For RF MEMS components do not contain non-linear
elements, such as semiconductor junctions or
ferroelectrics.
• MEMS device delivers low insertion loss, higher
Q and utilizes very low current for operation.
 • MEMS tunable variable capacitors have the
potential to replace conventional varactor
diodes in many applications such as
oscillators, tunable filters, and phase shifters.
• Among all the MEMS tunable capacitors
developed to date, parallel-plate configuration
(using electrostatic actuation) is the most
commonly used
• It consists of two parallel plates, four T-shaped
beams to suspend the top plate. Air is
between the top plate and the bottom plate.
• When voltage is applied to the two pads, the
top plate will be pulled down because of
electrostatic force.
• the suspended plate can be pulled down at
most by 1/3 of the original gap,
corresponding to a 50% capacitance increase.

RF MEMS Variable Capacitors

• The Pull in voltage is given by where where x0 is the
original gap, C0 the original capacitance without applied voltage or RF
signals, km the effective spring constant of the four T-shaped beams,
which can be written as

• where keq is the equivalent spring constant of each T-shaped beams,

Li, Wi, and Ti are the length, width and thickness of the beams E is the
Young's modulus of the metal material.
 Challenging to achieve high-yield, high-reliability designs.

Properties of An array of bi-state MEMS capacitor cells (Fig. 1) forms a digitally

tunable capacitor

RF MEMS
The Q factor of the RF MEMS capacitors, which is frequency and
Variable capacitance dependent, is rated from tens to hundreds

Capacitor The third order input is usually over 60dBm providing good
linearity
(Cont.)
Having current consumption minimum, All these features of MEMS
tunable capacitors make them an excellent candidate device for
implementing tunable RF front-ends of the wireless transceivers.
 Smart Phones have to support variable frequency
bands from, 60MHz to 6GHz

Large Displays, Batteries creates the need for the

antennas to be even more smaller.
RF MEMS
SMART Lower antenna efficiency results in data rates that
are a fraction of what is promised while draining
TUNERS (The battery life.
The solution to having more than one antenna is
Need) too tune the antenna precisely to a specific
frequency in LTE band.
Cavendish solves this problem by using hundreds of
tiny MEMS capacitors that are selected digitally in
groups to vary the capacitance.
• Wi Spry has introduced Tunable Digital Capacitor technology based on
common MEMS structural elements.
• These capacitor arrays deliver a very fine range of capacitance range
resulting in a wide tuning range.
• WiSpry’s tunable RF technology include:
1. Separate Signal and Control Path
2. Unique Beam Structure Improves Isolation & Reliability by eliminating
charging effect.
3. Wide range of values available
 General Properties
• Wi Spry manufactures Tunable capacitor known
as WS1040 is four capacitor device that can be
indivisually controlled for a precise capacitance
value.
• WiSpry capacitors can be used both in series
and in shunt configuration.
• With introduction of new LTE Bands, we cannot
follow a middle approach.
• unable RF quad capacitor also addresses
numerous antenna challenges facing wearable
device designers. The single chip enables real-
time control and adaption to the electrical
signal environment.
• Companies like Cavendish have followed Wi
Spry Approach to create a smart tuner.
Smart Tuner by Cavendish
Kinetics
• SmarTuneTM Antenna Tuners are extremely precise
• and low-loss variable capacitors that tolerate high RF
• Voltages, making them ideal for tunable antennas,
• dynamic load adjustments, tunable filters, and analog
• RF applications that require high voltage operation.
• Cavendish Kinetics’ RF MEMS SmarTuners solve the problem. SmarTuners
are attached to the aperture of the antenna to dynamically change the
electrical length, allowing the phone to precisely tune to any frequency
band.
• SmartTuners can also be used for impedance matching to maximize the
power transfer to the antenna. Aperture Tuning and Impedance Matching
can even be combined to further optimize RF performance.
SmarTune Advantages over Broadband Antennas: full spectrum
coverage at high efficiency
 References
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0026269207002455
• https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=904341
• https://www.slideshare.net/Yole_Developpement/yole-cavendish-
kineticssample
• https://www.coventor.com/mems-solutions/rf-switch-varactor/
• http://www.memsjournal.com/2011/05/an-overview-of-rf-mems-
technologies-and-applications.html
• http://www.electronicdesign.com/communications/digital-rf-mems-
capacitor-maximizes-smart-phone-antenna-efficiency
• https://www.cavendish-kinetics.com/rf-mems-products/rf-mems-
transferswitches/
• http://wispry.com/solutions/tunable-digital-capacitor-arrays/