A MEMS-Reconfigurable Power Divider on High Resistivity Silicon Substrate

Abstract

This paper presents a MEMS-reconfigurable power divider on high resistivity silicon substrate with variable power ratio. The circuit is based on two cascaded hybrid couplers connected through a tunable phase shifter that produces the required power ratio. A 5 state prototype has been fabricated on a 525 m high resistivity silicon substrate employing two 3 dB branch line couplers and a reflection-line MEMS phase shifter. The latter is reconfigured through two MEMS-switched open ended lines, whose lengths can be varied through the actuation of eight ohmic contact MEMS switches. Measurements of the MEMS switch show an isolation and an insertion loss better than 15 dB and 0.2 dB, respectively, with a contact resistance lower than 1 Ohm in the entire power divider bandwidth. RF measurements of the power divider exhibit a return loss better than 16 dB and an isolation better than 17 dB in the bandwidth [11.8-12.2] GHz with nominal power ratios of 1:0, 6:1,1:1,1:6, and 0:1.