Single-pole Single-throw Research Articles

Modeling and simulation of enhancement mode p-GaN Gate AlGaN/GaN HEMT for RF circuit switch applications

An enhancement mode p-GaN gate AlGaN/GaN HEMT is proposed and a physics based virtual source charge model with Landauer approach for electron transport has been developed using Verilog-A and simulated using Cadence Spectre, in order to predict device characteristics such as threshold voltage, drain current and gate capacitance. The drain current model incorporates important physical effects such as velocity saturation, short channel effects like DIBL (drain induced barrier lowering), channel length modulation (CLM), and mobility degradation due to self-heating. The predicted Id–Vds, Id-Vgs, and C-V characteristics show an excellent agreement with the experimental data for both drain current and capacitance which validate the model. The developed model was then utilized to design and simulate a single-pole single-throw (SPST) RF switch.

High-Power Filtering Switch With Low Loss and High Isolation Based on Dielectric Resonator

In this paper, a novel method for designing high-power filtering switches using dielectric resonators (DRs) is presented for the first time. The filtering switches consist of DRs and printed circuit boards. The latter are embedded in the metal cavity to enable the integration of p-i-n diodes. The ON- and OFF-states are realized by controlling the p-i-n diodes which are put in the feeding lines or nonresonance nodes (NRNs). Electromagnetic field properties of the DR (at TE $_{11\delta }$ mode) and feeding line (or NRN) are studied and the coupling between them is investigated for guiding coupling control. In the ON-state, the filtering switches are equivalent to bandpass filters with no signal passing through the p-i-n diodes, which avoids additional loss introduced by p-i-n diodes and attains high power handling capability. In the OFF-state, the proposed filtering switches offer enhanced isolations by controlling the coupling of the filtering circuits, which differs from the conventional switches by turning off transistors or diodes. For demonstration, a DR-based filtering single-pole single-throw switch and a filtering single-pole double-throw switch are implemented. High selectivity, low ON-state loss and high OFF-state isolation are observed. The measured $\text{P}_{\mathrm {1dB}}$ is larger than 80 W, featuring high power handling capability.

Design and analysis of compact MMIC switches utilising GaAs pHEMTs in 3D multilayer technology

In this paper, we demonstrate for the first time the implementation of three-dimensional multilayer technology on GaAs-based pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) switches. Two types of pHEMT switches are considered, namely single-pole single-throw (SPST) and single-pole double-throw (SPDT). The design and analysis of the devices are demonstrated first through a simulation of the industry-recognised standard model, TriQuint’s Own Model—Level 3, developed by TriQuint Semiconductor, Inc. From the simulation analysis, three optimised SPST and SPDT pHEMT switches which can address applications ranging from L to X bands, are fabricated and tested. The performance of the pHEMT switches using multilayer technology are comparable to those of the current state-of-the-art pHEMT switches, while simultaneously offering compact circuits with the advantages of integration with other MMIC components.

Coupling-Inductor-Based Hybrid mm-Wave CMOS SPST Switch

This brief presents a hybrid CMOS millimeter-wave single-pole single-throw (SPST) switch. This newly invented hybrid structure demonstrates better tradeoffs between insertion loss and isolation compared to conventional distributed structures. The performance benefits are analyzed in detail and validated by both simulation and measurement results. Additionally, the chip area is conserved by using lump elements, the coupled inductor. Moreover, a specific bias scheme is used to further decrease insertion loss by about 0.5 dB. This SPST switch achieves higher than 35-dB isolation over an ultrawide frequency range, from 54 to 84 GHz, a minimum 1.7-dB insertion loss, and <−10-dB reflection coefficient with 0.012-mm2 chip area in 65-nm CMOS. The design achieves more than 10-dB enhancement of isolation in comparison with the state-of-the-arts while maintaining similar insertion loss.

Design of 85–105GHz Wideband Traveling Wave PIN Diode Switches and Attenuators with Radial Stubs

Wideband traveling wave PIN Diode switches and attenuators are proposed. The switches and attenuators consist of three shunt PIN diodes, six radial stubs, bias circuit and DC return circuit. Wide bandwidth is achieved with six different radial stubs as reflective load of the diodes. The stubs work as short circuit to the diodes at different frequency points for broad bandwidth. For the Single pole single throw (SPST) switch, the lowest measured Insertion loss (IL) is 0.75dB and lower than 2.0dB in 85-105GHz, and its isolation is better than 21.3dB. As a Voltage-controlled variable attenuator (VCA), typical attenuation range is 23dB and attenuation fluctuation is lower than 5dB in 85-105GHz.

D–Band RF–MEMS SPDT Switch in a $0.13~\mu$ m SiGe BiCMOS Technology

This letter presents a D–Band (110–170 GHz) RF–MEMS based Single–Pole Double–Throw (SPDT) switch fabricated in a $0.13~\mu \text {m}$ SiGe BiCMOS technology. The on–wafer S–parameter measurements of the RF–MEMS based SPDT switch show beyond state of the art RF performances, 1.42 dB insertion loss and 54.5 dB isolation at 140 GHz. The SPDT switch consists of a tee junction connected to two Single–Pole Single–Throw (SPST) RF–MEMS switches. The RF–MEMS switch is actuated using 60 V actuation voltage and provides less than $10~\mu \text {s}$ switch–on and switch–off times. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the results achieved in this study are the lowest insertion loss and the highest isolation of a SPDT reported in D–band.

Small-signal switch model of GaN HEMTs for MMIC applications

Gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) with symmetrical structure as a control device is discussed in this paper. The equivalent circuit model is proposed on the basis of physical and electrical properties of the GaN HEMT device. A transistor with 0.5 μm gate length and 6 × 125 μm gate width is fabricated to verify the model, which can be treated as a single pole single throw (SPST) switch due to the ON state and OFF state. The measurement results show a good agreement with the simulation results, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed model.

High Power and Reliable SPST/SP3T RF MEMS Switches for Wireless Applications

This letter presents novel high power and reliable radio frequency (RF) microelectromechanical systems switches with single-pole single-throw (SPST) and single-pole triple-throw (SP3T) configurations. An in-plane movable structure with a single layer is made using a simple standard silicon-on-insulator process, which greatly reduces the micro-fabrication complexity and cost compared with the previously reported multi-contact switches with out-of-plane movable structures. The SPST switch achieves a uniform current distribution through each contact, thereby increasing the power handling capability of the switch. The SP3T switch is a derivative of the SPST switch with separate individual actuations. The experimental results demonstrate that the fabricated switches have superior RF performances: insertion losses are −0.9 and −1.3 dB at 6 GHz for SPST and SP3T switches, respectively, whereas isolations are better than −29 and −37 dB from dc to 6 GHz for SPST and SP3T switches, respectively. In hot-switching conditions, the SPST switch can handle RF power up to 2 W for 10 million cycles, whereas the SP3T switch is capable of handling an RF power of 1 W for 7 million cycles before failure occurs.

Wideband high-isolation SPDT RF switch in 0.18- $$\upmu$$ μ m SiGe BiCMOS technology

A single pole double throw (SPDT) RF switch working in wide band is presented. The SPDT RF switch composed of many single pole single throw (SPST) switches changes the signal flow corresponding to control signals. It is very important to obtain low insertion loss and high power driving capability for dealing with the input signal of wide dynamic range. High isolation is also desirable for suppressing leakage of unwanted signal going through the off-state path. To achieve low insertion loss, the heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) along with MOSFET in SiGe BiCMOS process is employed. HBT shows inherently considerably high impedance between collector and emitter terminals when it turns off, so that RF signals leak less through the off-state path. The insertion loss of the proposed SPDT RF switch is maintained less than 2 dB over frequency range of interest. This RF switch cancels leakage signals coming out of the off-state paths, leading to isolation improvement. For leakage cancellation, transformer and common-base structure are employed. In addition, SPST switches are adopted in parallel with inductors for decreasing the phase deviation of the passing signal. Since the RF switch using MOSFET shows worse isolation as frequency increases, leakage signal cancellation is designed to work in higher frequency region for obtaining wideband operation. A high isolation is obtained over 23 dB in measurement. This RF switch operates from 1 to 8 GHz providing low insertion loss. In this design, 0.18-$$\upmu$$μm SiGe BiCMOS process is used and the proposed RF switch occupies the area of 0.3 mm$$^{2}$$2.

Vanadium Oxide Thin-Film Variable Resistor-Based RF Switches

Vanadium dioxide (VO2) is a unique phase change material (PCM) that possesses a metal-to-insulator transition property. Pristine VO2 has a negative temperature coefficient of resistance, and it undergoes an insulator-to-metal phase change at a transition temperature of 68 °C. Such a property makes the VO2 thin-film-based variable resistor (varistor) a good candidate in reconfigurable electronics to be integrated with different RF devices such as inductors, varactors, and antennas. Series single-pole single-throw (SPST) switches with integrated VO2 thin films were designed, fabricated, and tested. The overall size of the device is $380~\mu \text{m}\times 600~\mu \text{m}$ . The SPST switches were fabricated on a sapphire substrate with integrated heating coil to control VO2 phase change. During the test, when VO2 thin film changed from insulator at room temperature to metallic state (low-resistive phase) at 80 °C, the insertion loss of the SPST switch was <3 dB at 10 GHz. In addition, the isolation of the SPST improved to better than 30 dB when the temperature dropped to 20 °C. These tunable characteristics of the RF switch provide evidence for VO2 as a useful PCM for the broad range of applications in reconfigurable electronics.

A Highly Integrated 1-Bit Phase Shifter Based on High-Pass/Low-Pass Structure

This letter presents a highly integrated 1-bit 90 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">°</sup> phase shifter based on high-pass/low-pass structure for 60 GHz beamforming applications using a standard 65 nm CMOS process. In order to overcome the limitation of the conventional low-pass only phase shifter, the combination of high-pass/low-pass network was utilized as a 1-bit phase shifter. By integrating a high pass network into the low-pass network with low loss single-pole single throw (SPST) switches that adapt a resistive body floating technique, the proposed phase shifter achieves average 5 dB IL and less than ±0.18 dB of insertion loss flatness and 1 dB rms amplitude error over the whole band in a small chip area of 0.16 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> including pads.

Layered axial force coupled membrane based metal contact single-pole quad-throw RF MEMS switch: design, RF performance and mechanical modeling

RF MEMS is a perfect candidate to replace the conventional switches used for microwave frequency. Most of the RF MEMS switches developed generally concentrate on single-pole single-throw based configurations and limited work is reported on switches based on single-pole multiple-throw. This paper reports an RF MEMS single-pole quad-throw (SPQT) switch design and modeling utilizing an axial force coupling mechanism among membranes. The proposed novel SPQT structure consists of twin pair switching membranes coupled using flexible beams. The primary advantage of such a mechanism is to increase isolation as when one switching membrane is pulled down to the ON-state, there develops an axial force on the other and hence it is turned to a better OFF state. The gap on other port increases. Hence, this enables the coupled pair of switches to achieve simultaneously a low actuation voltage, high isolation. The displacement of coupling beams is restricted by a silicon stopper and hence further amplifies the axial force. The designed 3-layer stack (Silicon Nitride/Gold/Silicon Nitride), minimizes the warpage of large membrane. The insertion loss and isolation among throws of the SPQT are simulated to be better than 0.09 and 53 dB at 2 GHz, respectively. The voltage required for actuation is 12 V while the SPQT switch has a compact area of 1 mm × 0.7 mm.

An ultrawideband SPST switch using defected ground structure low pass filter in 65-nmCMOS technology

In this article, we propose a novel concept of applying a defected ground structure low pass filter (DGS LPF) to the design of switches. We highlight that the DGS structure has such advantages as consuming less silicon area and providing another degree of design freedom to optimize the switch performances. To prove the concept, we analyze, design, and characterize a single-pole single-throw (SPST) switch using a DGS LPF in 65-nm CMOS technology. We show that the DGS LPF SPST switch with active size of 125 × 88 µm2 can cover an ultrawideband from DC to 77 GHz. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE 25:758–768, 2015.

Análisis de desempeño de conmutadores de microondas tipo serie-paralelo y TEE de diferentes materiales semiconductores para comunicaciones Satelitales

Se presenta un análisis de desempeño de conmutadores de microondas compuestos, de una entrada y una salida (SPST), diseñados con diodos p-i-n tipo masa con diferentes tipos de materiales semiconductores para las bandas de frecuencia Ku y Ka. Las dos configuraciones de conmutadores compuestos más comunes son aquellos con diodos p-i-n ubicados en diseños serie-paralelo y serie-paralelo-serie (TEE) y aquí son analizados utilizando materiales semiconductores de Si, GaAs, GaN-WZ, GaN-ZB, GaSb, InP y SiC. Se presenta la metodología utilizada en los cálculos de resistencia serie y capacitancia de unión en los diodos p-i-n con el propósito de calcular los parámetros de desempeño propios de cada dispositivo conmutador. Estos parámetros son pérdida de inserción y aislamiento. Los conmutadores de tipo serie-paralelo, exceptuando el conmutador basado en diodo p-i-n de SiC-6 H, exhiben pérdidas de inserción menores a 0.2 dB y aislamiento hasta 41dB a la frecuencia de operación de 12 GHz. El conmutador diodo p-i-n tipo TEE con base en GaN-ZB tiene la mejor respuesta de pérdida de inserción menor a 0.23 dB y aislamiento hasta 52 dB, a las frecuencias de operación de 12 GHz y 30 GHz. El conmutador compuesto con base en diodo p-i-n de GaSb alcanza el mejor desempeño a la frecuencia de 12 GHz. Los conmutadores de microondas con configuración TEE tienen respuestas satisfactorias para la frecuencia de 30 GHz.

English

Nowadays, electricity along with power electronics have become essential part of our life. Power consumptions are increasing every year due to industrialization in our country. DC-DC converter topologies such as buck, boost, buck-boost, cuk converters provide us with ability to step up and step down the input DC voltage precisely. DC-DC converter is needed to convert directly to the desired voltage from the renewable energy sources such as solar cell and Fuel cell. In this paper, we proposed four input buck-boost DC-DC converter which is used in such system to improve efficiency, performance and also to reduce cost and component count. Four input buck-boost dc-dc converter is designed through derivation by using five Single pole Single Throw (SPST) switches as a building block. Switch realization and operating characteristics of proposed four input buck-boost dc-dc converter is obtained with their voltage transfer ratios in buck and boost modes of operation. The performances of the dc-dc converter are simulated using MATLAB/simulink.

Flexible radio-frequency single-crystal germanium switch on plastic substrates

This Letter presents the realization and characterizations of the flexible radio-frequency (RF)/microwave switches on plastic substrates employing single-crystal germanium (Ge) nanomembranes. The fabricated flexible Ge single-pole, single-throw (SPST) switches display high frequency responses (e.g., insertion loss of &amp;lt;1.3 dB at up to 30 GHz and isolation &amp;gt;10 dB at up to ∼13 GHz). RF performance tradeoff exists for the flexible Ge switches and the major affecting parameters are determined. The flexible Ge SPST switch shows better RF property to that of the flexible Si SPST switch. Underlying mechanism is investigated by theoretical analysis and modeling of switches with different structures.

Compact High-Power SPST and SP4T RF MEMS Metal-Contact Switches

This paper presents the design and characterization of compact high-power RF microelectromechanical system single-pole single-throw (SPST) and single-pole four-throw (SP4T) metal-contact switches. The SPST design results in a contact force of 1.9-2.8 mN at 80-90 V distributed over eight contacts and using four independent quadrants for actuation. The SP4T is a derivative of the SPST and results in a contact force of 0.45-0.7 mN per switch at 80-90 V. S-parameter measurements show an up-state capacitance of 70 and 17 fF along with a down-state resistance of 1-2 and 2-4 Ω using Au-to-Ru contacts for the SPST and SP4T switches, respectively. The switch pull-in and release voltages are 50 and 45 V, respectively, and the switching time is t on ~ 10 μs and t off ~ 2 μs. The SPST and SP4T are capable of handling 10 and 2 W up to 100 million cycles, and the SPST has been tested with 30 W of power up to 30 million cycles before failure (all cold switched). The application areas are in compact high-power applications such as wireless communication systems and base-stations.

Low-temperature DC-contact piezoelectric switch operable in high magnetic fields

A piezoelectric single-pole single-throw (SPST) switch has been developed, since there is no satisfying commercial low-resistance, high current DC-contact RF switch available which is operable at 4.2K and in a high magnetic field of at least 0.5T. This piezoelectric switch shows very low insertion loss of less than −0.1dB within a bandwidth of 100MHz when operated at 4.2K. The switch could also be used to mechanically disconnect and connect electrodes or electrical circuits from one another.

Design, fabrication, testing and packaging of a silicon micromachined radio frequency microelectromechanical series (RF MEMS) switch

RF characterization and packaging of a single pole single throw (SPST) direct contact microelectromechanical (MEMS) series radio frequency (RF) switch is reported. Precise thickness of the silicon MEMS structure is achieved using a specially developed silicon Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE) thinning process. A stress free release process is employed which ensures a high yield of released microstructures. The design of the device is based on stiffness equations derived from first principles. Displacement of the actuator under applied field is measured to confirm electrostatic pull in, which occurs in the 30–50 V range. The variation of contact resistance with time has been measured and is found to have a power law decay, in agreement with theoretical models. At the bare die level the insertion loss, return loss and the isolation of the switch were measured to be −0.43 dB, −25 dB and −21 dB, respectively at 10 GHz. The devices were packaged in commercially available RF packages and mounted in alumina boards for post package characterization. Due to the presence of bond wires in the signal path of the packaged devices, the RF performance was found to degrade at high frequencies. However, losses were measured to be at acceptable levels up to 2 GHz. Factors contributing to insertion loss at the die and package device levels are discussed in detail with possible solutions.

A Miniaturized Millimeter-Wave Standing-Wave Filtering Switch With High P1dB

This paper presents the design considerations of a silicon-based transmit/receive (T/R) switch for microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies. Techniques for minimizing switch size and loss while increasing linearity are discussed. With the dedicated idea of the standing-wave concept, a combo design of a bandpass filter and switch, called the filtering switch, is introduced for the front-end system to achieve better performance in terms of low insertion loss, compact size, and good linearity simultaneously. Based on the proposed switchable artificial resonator, a standing-wave single-pole single-throw (SPST) and a single-pole double-throw (SPDT) filtering switches are designed and implemented for demonstration. Fabricated with a 0.18- $\mu{\hbox {m}}$ SiGe BiCMOS process, the standing-wave SPST exhibits only 1.9-dB insertion loss and 18-dB isolation with a compact chip area of only 0.027 ${\hbox {mm}}^{2}$ at 50 GHz. The SPDT T/R switch exhibits 3.2-dB insertion loss, good stopband rejection, and 20-dB isolation with only 0.0675 ${\hbox {mm}}^{2}$ active chip area at 60 GHz. With the proposed standing-wave topology, a good linearity with the input 1-dB compression point (P1dB) of 21 dBm is obtained for both switches.