A high performance and ultra wide tuned capacitor using netted membrane structure for reconfigurable RF systems

This paper reports ultra-wide tuned RF micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS) tunable capacitor using netted membrane structure for highly miniaturized and reconfigurable RF devices and systems applications. The proposed capacitor is also designed to achieve high linearity and capacitance values for commercial applications. Since the netted membrane is stuck to the dielectric layer of the bottom electrode not at once but each in turn as the actuation voltage is increased. In accordingly, it provides extremely superior linearity and wide tuning range. The fabricated RF MEMS tunable capacitor exhibited the linearity factor (LF) of 99.29 % in capacitance versus voltage (C-V) response and the capacitance tuning range of 1.78 ~ 9.15 pF at 1 GHz, respectively.