Liquid Metal Droplet and Micro Corrugated Diaphragm RF-MEMS for reconfigurable RF filters

Wasim Irshad, Purdue University

Abstract

Widely Tunable RF Filters that are small, cost-effective and offer ultra low power consumption are extremely desirable. Indeed, such filters would allow drastic simplification of RF front-ends in countless applications from cell phones to satellites in space by replacing switched-array of static acoustic filters and YIG filters respectively. Switched array of acoustic filters are de facto means of channel selection in mobile applications such as cell phones. SAW and BAW filters satisfy most criteria needed by mobile applications such as low cost, size and power consumption. However, the trade-off is a significant loss of 3-4 dB in modern cell phone RF front-end. This leads to need for power-hungry amplifiers and short battery life. It is a necessary trade-off since there are no better alternatives. These devices are in mm scale and consume mW. YIG filters dominate applications where size or power is not a constraint but demand excellent RF performance like low loss and high tuning ratio. These devices are measured in inches and require several watts to operate. Clearly, a tunable RF filter technology that would combine the cost, size and power consumption benefits of acoustic filters with excellent RF performance of YIG filters would be extremely desirable and imminently useful. The objective of this dissertation is to develop such a technology based upon RF-MEMS Evanescent-mode cavity filter. Two highly novel RF-MEMS devices have been developed over the course of this PhD to address the unique MEMS needs of this technology. The first part of the dissertation is dedicated to introducing the fundamental concepts of tunable cavity resonators and filters. This includes the physics behind it, key performance metrics and what they depend on and requirements of the MEMS tuners. Initial gap control and MEMS attachment method are identified as potential hurdles towards achieving very high RF performance. Simple and elegant solutions to both these issues are discussed in detail and have proved pivotal to this work. The second part of the dissertation focuses on the Liquid Metal Droplet RF-MEMS. A novel tunable RF MEMS resonator that is based upon electrostatic control over the morphology of a liquid metal droplet (LMD) is conceived. We demonstrate an LMD evanescent-mode cavity resonator that simultaneously achieves wide analog tuning from 12 to 18 GHz with a measured quality factor of 1400-1840. A droplet of 250-μm diameter is utilized and the applied bias is limited to 100 V. This device operates on a principle called Electro-Wetting On Dielectric (EWOD). The liquid metal employed is a non-toxic eutectic alloy of Gallium, Indium and Tin known as Galinstan. This device also exploits interfacial surface energy and viscous body forces that dominate at nanoliter scale. We then apply our Liquid Metal Droplet (LMD) RF-MEMS architecture to demonstrate a continuously tunable electrostatic Ku-Band Filter. A 2-pole bandpass filter with measured insertion loss of less than 0.4dB and 3dB FBW of 3.4% is achieved using a Galinstan droplet of 250μm diameter and bias limited to 100V. We demonstrate that the LMD is insensitive to gravity by performing inversion and tilt experiments. In addition, we study its thermal tolerance by subjecting the LMD up to 150° C. The third part of the dissertation is dedicated to the Micro-Corrugated Diaphragm (MCD) RF-MEMS. We present an evanescent-mode cavity bandpass filter with state-of-the-art RF performance metrics like 4:1 tuning ratio from 5 to 20 GHz with less than 2dB insertion loss and 2-6% 3dB bandwidth. Micro-Corrugated Diaphragm (MCD) is a novel electrostatic MEMS design specifically engineered to provide large-scale analog deflections necessary for such continuous and wide tunable filtering with very high quality factor. We demonstrate a 1.25mm radius and 2μm thick Gold MCD which provides 30μm total deflection with nearly 60% analog range. We also present a detailed and systematic MCD design methodology for relevant applications. To further demonstrate MCD versatility, we implement a bandstop MCD filter that cascades nine separate resonators to achieve a 6-24 GHz continuous tuning. The disseration concludes with a Galinstan Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) micropump and summary of my doctoral work. Although presented at the very end of this dissertation, the MHD micropump was indeed the very starting point for all my doctoral research efforts. The invaluable lessons learned here paved the way for development of both LMD and MCD RF-MEMS.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Peroulis, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Electrical engineering|Mechanical engineering|Electromagnetics

COinS