SP4T Switch Research Articles

Total Power Radiometer for Medical Sensor Applications Using Matched and Mismatched Noise Sources.

This paper presents a simple total power radiometer to noninvasively measure the temperature of the human body. The proposed 3-GHz radiometer consists of an antenna collecting the noise power generated by a target, a low-noise and high-gain receiver amplifying the noise power, and a detector converting the noise power to voltage. A single-pole-triple-throw (SP3T) switch is placed between the antenna and the receiver, while a personal computer is used to control the SP3T switch, collect and process the data such as detector output voltages and physical temperatures of the reference noise sources and the target. The fabricated radiometer shows a good performance agreement with a thermometer in the temperature measurement of water from 25.0 to 43.1 °C. For the accurate prediction of the target temperature, the radiometer is calibrated adaptively to the environment and radiometer variations. For this purpose, two reference noise sources (hot and cold) are proposed using matched and mismatched resistors at room temperature. These resistor-based noise sources offer a reliable performance without complex temperature control systems. Furthermore, they can be easily calibrated in real time by periodically measuring the physical temperatures of the resistors. In addition, the logarithmic detector with wide dynamic range is adopted and logarithmically-fitted based on the measurement results instead of linear approximation, which reduces the error caused by the limited dynamic range of resistor-based noise sources. In order to further increase the accuracy, the performance imbalances between ports in the SP3T switch are also taken into account by employing offsets in the radiometer output voltages.

Ku to V-band 4-bit MEMS phase shifter bank using high isolation SP4T switches and DMTL structures

This work presents a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) based on a wide-band 4-bit phase shifter using two back-to-back single-pole-four-throw (SP4T) switches and four different distributed MEMS transmission line (DMTL) structures that are implemented on 635 µm alumina substrate using surface micromachining process. An SP4T switch is designed with a series-shunt configuration and it demonstrates an average return loss of >17 dB, an insertion loss of <1.97 dB and maximum isolation of >28 dB up to 60 GHz. A maximum area of the SP4T switch is ~0.76 mm2. Single-pole-single-throw and SP4T switches are capable of handling 1 W of radio frequency (RF) power up to >100 million cycles at 25° C; they can even sustained up to >70 million cycles with 1 W at 85 °C. The proposed wide-band phase shifter works at 17 GHz (Ku-band), 25 GHz (K-band), 35 GHz (Ka-band) and 60 GHz (V-band) frequencies. Finally,a 4-bit phase shifter demonstrates an average insertion loss of <6 dB, return loss of >10 dB and maximum phase error of ~3.8° at 60 GHz frequency over 500 MHz bandwidth. Total area of the fabricated device is ~11 mm2. In addition, the proposed device works well up to >107 cycles with 1 W of RF power. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the best reported wide-band MEMS 4-bit phase shifter in the literature that works with a constant resolution.

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.

Electric‐field‐coupled contactless ID sensor for cm ‐level high‐precision positioning item‐level tagging systems

To detect multiple identifications (IDs) for cm -level high-precision positioning item-level tagging (ILT) systems in near-field ultra-high-frequency RFID applications, an electric-field-coupled multiple ID sensor is presented. The proposed ID sensor consists of four circular electric coupling parts, an impedance-matching network, and an SP4T switch for position control. By switching the electric-field-coupled sensing parts, cm -level position detection of densely aggregated RFID tags for a small-sized ILT can be achieved. The sensing distance of the proposed ID sensor is ~7 mm and its physical size is 50 × 50 mm 2 (~1/7 λ 0 at 920 MHz).

High Power Ku-Band T/R and SP4T Switches in SOI CMOS

This paper presents silicon-on-insulation (SOI) CMOS T/R and SP4T switches with high-power handling capability. The CMOS transistors are stacked and their sources and drains are biased for the high-power handling capability. The TQ trench of 0.18-m SOI CMOS process is properly placed to improve the substrate isolation between transistors. For the T/R switch, the measured insertion loss of Tx and Rx modes are 1.1 and 1.7 dB, respectively, in Ku-band (12–18 GHz). The measured isolation between Tx and Rx ports is 24 dB in the same frequency band. To author’s knowledge, this T/R switch shows the highest input 1-dB compression point of 34 dBm in Ku-band CMOS switches. The SP4T switch operates in DC-18 GHz, and the measured insertion loss and isolation are 2.4 and 19.5 dB, respectively, with the return loss of 9.3 dB. This chip sizes are 0.11 mm for the T/R switch and 0.12 mm for the SP4T switch.

Reliability Analysis of Ku-Band 5-bit Phase Shifters Using MEMS SP4T and SPDT Switches

This work presents a Ku-band microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based 5-bit phase shifter using dc contact single-pole-four-throw (SP4T) and single-pole-double-throw switches. The design is implemented using a coplanar waveguide transmission line. Two individual 2-bit phase shifters and one 1-bit phase shifter are cascaded to develop the complete 5-bit phase shifter. The phase shifters are fabricated on 635- $\mu{\hbox{m}}$ alumina substrate using a surface micromachining process. The 5-bit phase shifter demonstrates an average insertion loss of 2.65 dB in the 13–18-GHz band with a return loss better than 22 dB and average phase error less than 0.68 $^{\circ}$ at 17 GHz. Total area of the fabricated 5-bit phase shifter is ${\hbox{4.7}}\times {\hbox{2.8}} {\hbox{mm}}^{2}$ . The reliability of the single-pole-single-throw and SP4T switches show more than 10 million cycles with an RF power of 0.1–2 W. Furthermore, reliability of the MEMS phase shifter is extensively investigated and presented with cold and hot switched conditions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported MEMS 5-bit phase shifter in the literature that has undergone different reliability and qualification testing including 3-axis vibrations.

A reconfigurable antenna using tuning element for LTE applications

This article is intended to suggest a mobile-embedded antenna with tunable capacitance and the validity of the proposed solution was proved through design, fabrication, and measurement. The aforementioned antenna is applicable to long term evolution (LTE), including band 5, band 8, band 13, and band 17 that are in use today. The 4G mobile services' antennas need to ensure the extension of bandwidth in order to include LTE bands as well as other different services. Low-band characteristics, however, are difficult to achieve mainly because of lack of space for antennas in terminals. The problem may be solved by using a SP4T switch of RFMD, which is to generate the operation frequency of low-band tunable. The optimized parameters were able to fabrication and measure antennas. Hence, antennas come to meet with operation frequency and performance for low bands; also, the performance of the fabricated antenna that has been measured with the optimized parameters has been compared and analyze. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:556–559, 2015

Compact low-loss high-performance single-pole six-throw RF MEMS switch design and modeling for DC to 6 GHz

Low-loss high-performance systems with smaller footprints are highly regarded in the area of radio-frequency (RF) applications. In this paper, a multi-port single-pole six-throw (SP6T) based on RF MEMS ohmic switches design is proposed. The complete switch is designed with very small footprints of 1.2 mm$$^2$$2. Six ohmic/series microelectromechanical (MEMS) switches are designed to get high-isolation in microwave frequency range. The spring constant and actuation voltage required for the operation of the switches is computed using stress analysis module of finite element modeler. The robustness issue of RF MEMS switches can be increased by the proposed geometry. Based on the calculations and simulations, it can be seen that the switches can easily withstand the stress of $$\approx$$?120 MPa. The simulated RF performance of SP6T switch exhibits isolation of 70---45 dB and insertion loss of 0.01 dB for DC to 6 GHz between input port and individual output port. The proposed SP6T switch require low operational voltage level of 12.5 V.

Single‐pole multiple‐throw switches with defected ground structure low‐pass filter

In this study, the authors present a novel concept for the design of single-pole multiple-throw (SPMT) switches using defected ground structure low-pass filter (DGS LPF). The DGS LPF produces enhanced inductance to compensate the parasitic capacitance of the control transistors. As a result, the SPMT switch will consume much less silicon area. The concept is experimentally validated with a single-pole double-throw (SPDT) switch and a single-pole four-throw (SP4T) switch in 65-nm CMOS. The active area of the SPDT and SP4T switches are less than 130 × 150 μm2 and 180 × 165 μm2, respectively.

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.

High Isolation Single-Pole Four-Throw RF MEMS Switch Based on Series-Shunt Configuration

This paper presents a novel design of single-pole four-throw (SP4T) RF-MEMS switch employing both capacitive and ohmic switches. It is designed on high-resistivity silicon substrate and has a compact area of 1.06 mm2. The series or ohmic switches have been designed to provide low insertion loss with good ohmic contact. The pull-in voltage for ohmic switches is calculated to be 7.19 V. Shunt or capacitive switches have been used in each port to improve the isolation for higher frequencies. The proposed SP4T switch provides excellent RF performances with isolation better than 70.64 dB and insertion loss less than 0.72 dB for X-band between the input port and each output port.

Four‐port balanced antenna feeding network for switchable polarizations and stable Tx/Rx isolation characteristics

ABSTRACTA new four‐port balanced antenna feeding network for switchable polarizations and high transmit/receive (Tx/Rx) isolation characteristics is presented. The proposed structure is configured by two switching mode hybrid matrices which consist of two 3‐dB couplers and two SP4T switches, two directional couplers, and Wilkinson dividers. By controlling impedances of the switching mode hybrid matrices, different types of polarizations such as right‐handed circular polarization, left‐handed circular polarization, vertical polarization, and horizontal polarization can be generated with stable Tx/Rx isolation characteristics regardless of antenna impedance variations. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 56:17–23, 2014

LTCC 기술을 이용한 Bluetooth/WiFi 이중 모드 무선 전단부 모듈 구현

본 논문에서는 저온 동시 소성 세라믹(Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic: LTCC) 기술을 사용하여 블루투스와 WiFi에서 동작하는 무선 전단부 모듈(RF Front-end Module)을 설계, 구현하였다. 무선 전단부 모듈은 2.4/5 GHz 대역 다이플렉서와 2 GHz 대역 발룬, 5 GHz 대역 발룬, 그리고 송 수신용 SPDT 스위치와 SP3T 스위치로 구성되어 있다. LTCC의 설계에 있어, 적층 구조의 특성으로 인해 발생되는 예상 기생 성분은 시뮬레이션을 활용하여 설계하였다. 제작한 무선 전단부 모듈은 내부 접지(inner ground) 3개 층을 포함하여 총 13개 패턴으로 구성되었으며, 무선 전단부 모듈의 크기는 <TEX>$3.0mm{\times}3.7mm{\times}0.66mm$</TEX>이다. This paper presents a compact bluetooth/WiFi dual-mode dual-band RF front-end module(FEM) is realized by low temperature co-fired ceramic(LTCC) technology. The proposed RF front-end module consists of a diplexer, baluns in the LTCC substrate, and an SPDT switch, an SP3T switch on the LTCC substrate. In order to reduce the module size and increase integration level, the proposed diplexer and balun are designed using LC lumped elements. The parasitic elements caused by coupling effect between metal pattern layers and ground plane layer are considered during the design. The fabricated dual-mode RF front-end module has 13 pattern layers including three inner ground layers and it occupies less than <TEX>$3.0mm{\times}3.7mm{\times}0.66mm$</TEX>.

V-Band Beam-Steering ASK Transmitter and Receiver Using BCB-Based System-on-Package Technology on Silicon Mother Board

We report V-band fully integrated planar beam-steering Amplitude-Shift-Keying (ASK) transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) system using advanced thin-film technology on a silicon (Si) mother board. BCB-on-Si System-on-Package (SOP) technology allows Rotman lens, patch antennas, and other passive elements to be integrated on a Si substrate together with active circuits. All MMIC chipsets are flip-chipped on a BCB substrate. Tx beam-steering is achieved by a combination of a SP3T switch and a Rotman lens terminated with the embedded resistors. The measured Tx antenna gain is 17.5 dBi and the effective isotropic radiated power is 26 dBm. The Tx module can steer the beam to three different directions of 0 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">°</sup> and ±12 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">°</sup> in the H-plane. A wireless link was successfully demonstrated at a data rate of 2 Gb/s with less than 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-5</sup> bit error rate.

PHEMT 공정을 이용한 저손실, 고전력 4중 대역용 SP6T 스위치 칩의 설계 및 제작

In this paper, low-loss and high-power RF SP6T switch chips are designed, fabricated and measured for GSM/EGSM/DCS/PCS applications using WIN Semiconductors 0.5 pHEMT process. We utilized a combined configuration of series and series-shunt structures for optimized switch performance, and a common transistor structure on a receiver path for reducing chip area. The gate width and the number of stacked transistors are determined using ON/OFF input power level of the transceiver system. To improve the switch performance, feed-forward capacitors, shunt capacitors and parasitic FET inductance elimination due to resonance are actively used. The fabricated chip size is . S-parameter measurement shows an insertion loss of 0.5~1.2 dB and isolation of 28~36 dB. The fabricated SP6T switch chips can handle 4 W input power and suppress second and third harmonics by more than 75 dBc.

One good turn

A single element antenna has been integrated with a commercially available switch system to achieve beam steering for portable and compact applications. A team of collaborating researchers from the UK and Japan created the low profile reconfigurable antenna system using a hybrid high-impedance surface (HHIS)-based square loop antenna and a PIN diode-based SP4T switch, and demonstrated it as a complete unit with its associated electronics.

UHF RFID 시스템을 위한 Polarization selective 안테나 연구

본 논문은 UHF RFID 시스템을 위해 편파를 선택할 수 있는 리더 안테나를 설계 및 구현하였다. 제안된 리더 안테나는 두 개의 급전부를 가지는 마이크로 스트립 패치 안테나와 두 개의 SPDT 스위치와 하나의 SP4T 스위치와 3dB hybrid coupler로 구성되어 있다. 각각의 스위치 전압을 조절하여 수직 방향의 선형 편파와 수평 방향의 선형 편파, 좌수 원형 편파와 우수 원형 편파를 선택할 수 있다. 제안된 안테나는 902MHz~928MHz 대역에서 VSWR 2:1 기준으로 UHF RFID 주파수 대역인 902MHz~928MHz를 만족한다. 안테나의 최고이득은 X-Y Plane을 기준으로 선형 편파가 선택되어질 때 7.71dBi, 7.55dBi 로 측정되었고 원형 편파가 선택되어질 때 7.31dBic, 7.81dBic 로 측정되었다. 또한 원형 편파(LHCP, RHCP)가 선택 되어질 때 축비는 각각 2.01~2.83dB, 2.02~2.60dB로 측정되었고 이는 3dB 이하의 축비를 만족한다. TIn this paper, it is designed the polarization selective antenna for UHF RFID system. The proposed antenna is consist of microstrip patch antenna with dual feeding and two SPDT switches and a SP4T switch and 3dB hybrid coupler. Through control of voltage of switches, the proposed reader antenna can select horizontally linear polarization, vertically linear polarization, left-hand circular polarization (LHCP) and right hand circular polarization (RHCP). The proposed reader antenna satisfied 2:1 VSWR at 902MHz~928MHz. and it has under 3dB AR(axial ratio). Peak gain of antenna is 7.71dBi, 7.55dBi with linear polarization and 7.31dBic, 7.81dBic with circular polarization at x-y plane. Also Axial ratio of antenna is 2.01~2.83dB and 2.02~2.60dB respectively. It is satisfied 3dB axial ratio.

기생 성분을 고려한 Wi-Fi와 WiMAX용 LTCC 무선 전단부 모듈의 구현

In this paper, a compact RF Front-end module for Wireless Fidelity(Wi-Fi) and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access(WiMAX) applications is realized by low temperature co-fired ceramic(LTCC) technology. The RF Front-end module is composed of three LTCC band-pass filters, a Film Bulk Acoustic Resonator(FBAR) filter, fully embedded matching circuits, an SPDT switch for mode selection, an SPDT switch for Tx/Rx selection, and an SP4T switch for band selection. The parasitic elements of 0.2~0.3 pF are generated by the structure of stacking in the top pad pattern for DC block capacitor of SPDT switch for mode selection. These kinds of parasitic elements break the matching characteristic, and thus, the overall electrical performance of the module is degraded. In order to compensate it, we insert a parallel lumped-element inductor on capacitor pad pattern for DC block, so that we obtain the optimized performance of the RF Front-end module. The fabricated RF front-end module has 12 layers including three inner grounds and it occupies less than .

Design and Realization of Electrostatic Discharge Protected DC to 2GHz GaAs Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits SP4T Switch for TDMA Communication Applications

This paper discusses the small signal simulated and measured results of a DC to 2GHz monolithic GaAs SP4T switch which has been designed and realized. The measured 1 dB compression point of SP4T switch at different frequency range has also been presented. The DC to 2GHz switch has been designed using series-shunt FETs topology. This topology has worked over very large bandwidth. In this topology series MESFETs allows the SP4T switch to operate down to DC. The SP4T switch has been achieved better than 1.1dB of insertion loss, better than 32 dB of input to “Off” port isolation and better than 16 dB of the input and output return loss @2GHz. The performance of the SP4T switch has been measured on an FR4 PCB eval board. The on-chip higher value of ballast resistor has been used for ESD protection. The switch has designed using 0.7 μm Ion-Implanted recessed gates MESFET technology and used in switching matrices for TDMA communication system. The major advantages of the solid-state integrated switch are low power consumption, small size and lightweight. These fea tures of solid state switch are more attractive for com munication applications. The chip dimension is 1.2 × 1.2 mm.

Design and development of a broadband amplitude compensated long time delay circuit on thin‐film liquid crystal polymer

AbstractA 2‐bit long time delay circuit capable of 0 to 600 ps relative delays has been developed to operate from DC to 10 GHz. This circuit implements an amplitude compensation scheme through use of carefully designed attenuation coefficients on true time delay components that have been developed on a multilayer stack of thin‐film liquid crystal polymer. Minimal insertion losses are achieved by using prototype microelectromechanical system SP4T switches. Insertion losses are measured to be less than 4.3 dB across the band for all delays. Amplitude imbalance is measured to less than ±0.5 dB across the band. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 51: 1060–1063, 2009; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.24231