RF-MEMS Based V-Band Impedance Tuner Driven by Integrated High-Voltage LDMOS Switch Matrix and Charge Pump

To demonstrate a fully integrated RF-MEMS based system including HV generation and switching circuitry, a V-Band (40 - 75 GHz) single-stub impedance tuner comprising four RF-MEMS switches, a 40V charge pump, and LDMOS based HV switches is developed in a 0.25 μm SiGe-BiCMOS technology. The chip size of the designed impedance tuning circuit enables the integration into an on-wafer RF-probe used for noise parameter and load-pull measurements. With the integrated high-voltage generation and switching circuitry the wiring effort, which is necessary to control the integrated RF-MEMS based impedance tuning chip, can be drastically reduced. The operation of the on-chip high-voltage generation and switching circuitry is demonstrated by the measured S-parameters for various combinations of activated RF-MEMS switches. The four integrated RFMEMS switches enable 16 impedance states in the frequency range between 40 GHz and 60 GHz.