Design and simulation of a novel RF-MEMS tunable narrow band LC filter in the UHF band

Abstract

The design and simulation of a continuously tunable LC filter by integration of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) is presented in this work. The proposed tunable LC filter consists of a tunable capacitor and four inductors. The novelties of this RF-MEMS circuit include the integration of both mechanical suspensions with electrical inductors and the electrostatic actuator with the electrical capacitor. This filter is designed based on standard MetalMUMPs fabrication process trademark of MEMSCAP. With this filter, the frequency range from 2.5 to 3 GHz is achieved in the UHF band. High-quality performance is determined based on the 3 dB-bandwidth with about 83 MHz. The insertion loss of − 2.8 dB and the return loss of − 17.58 dB up to − 21.43 dB are other bold characteristic points of this design. The power consumption is near-zero thanks to the use of the electrostatic actuator. Therefore this filter can be used in low power and high-performance RF tuning applications. The group delay of this filter is less than 2.5 ns and the quality factor is from 45 to 85.