Q-factor estimation of fabricated MEMS parallel-plate variable capacitors in MUMPs

This paper gives a brief review of both the MUMPs technology and the common micro-machined parallel plate tunable capacitors. Further, several factors that contribute in creating discrepancy between designed and measured capacitance and/or degrading the quality factor of the MEMS variable capacitor are discussed. Finally, a novel and extremely simple relation that anticipates the value of the quality factor of the fabricated variable capacitors is introduced.