dc.contributor.author | Wong, Ka Wai | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2017-05-11 17:14:03 (GMT) | |
dc.date.available | 2017-05-11 17:14:03 (GMT) | |
dc.date.issued | 2017-05-11 | |
dc.date.submitted | 2017 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10012/11874 | |
dc.description.abstract | Radio frequency (RF) lumped elements are crucial building blocks for designing any type of passives
circuits for RF front-end applications in mobile devices. In particular, high-quality (Q) factor lumped
elements are desirable for improving both insertion loss and noise performance. Integrated passive
devices (IPD) technology is a platform that can provide miniature inductors, and capacitors with high-
Q values that are unattainable with traditional CMOS technologies. Over the past several years, IPD
technology has been used to implement devices such as filters, couplers and impedance-matching
networks for a wide range of system-in-package applications. However, most of the IPD circuits do
not yet have any tunable/reconfigurable functions for use in frequency agile applications.
The objective of this research is to develop tunable integrated passive devices (IPDs) using barium
strontium titanate (BST) and micro-electrical-mechanical-systems (MEMS) technologies. Another
objective is to develop a fabrication process for monolithic integration of MEMS switches and IPD
devices. A 4-mask IPD glass/alumina-based fabrication process is developed at the University of
Waterloo for the first time. Details of the modeling and characterization of high-Q lumped elements,
L and C, are investigated. The RF performance of these elements is compared with that of similar
designs fabricated in a commercial IPD foundry. To highlight the benefits of the IPD process, lumped
element bandpass filters are designed, fabricated, and tested.
BST varactors are integrated with IPD circuits to demonstrate a highly miniaturized tunable
impedance matching network featuring a wide impedance coverage from 2-3 GHz and an insertion
loss of approximately 1 dB. The network promises to be useful in a broad range of wireless
applications. A high performance tunable IPD/BST bandstop filter with a wideband balun as a multichip
module is also proposed. Reconfigurable IPD/BST bandpass filters with tunable transmission
zeros are presented and investigated experimentally for operation under high power levels.
Intermodulation test results are presented for the integrated IPD/BST devices.
Making use of the fact that the IPD fabrication process is amenable to the realization of MEMS
devices, the IPD process originally developed for realizing passive circuits is further expanded to
accommodate monolithic integration of MEMS switches with IPD circuits. Contact-type MEMS
switches are developed, fabricated and tested. Also, a monolithically integrated IPD/MEMS 3-bit
high resolution true-time delay network and high-Q switched-capacitor bank are fabricated and tested
to demonstrate the benefits of integrating MEMS technology with the IPD technology. | en |
dc.language.iso | en | en |
dc.publisher | University of Waterloo | en |
dc.subject | Tunable Filters | en |
dc.subject | Integrated Passive Devices | en |
dc.subject | Multi-chip Modules | en |
dc.subject | Impedance Tuner | en |
dc.subject | Passive Devices | en |
dc.subject | Tunable RF | en |
dc.subject | Tunable IPD | en |
dc.subject | IPD MEMS | en |
dc.title | Development of Tunable RF Integrated Passive Devices | en |
dc.type | Doctoral Thesis | en |
dc.pending | false | |
uws-etd.degree.department | Electrical and Computer Engineering | en |
uws-etd.degree.discipline | Electrical and Computer Engineering | en |
uws-etd.degree.grantor | University of Waterloo | en |
uws-etd.degree | Doctor of Philosophy | en |
uws.contributor.advisor | Mansour, Raafat | |
uws.contributor.affiliation1 | Faculty of Engineering | en |
uws.published.city | Waterloo | en |
uws.published.country | Canada | en |
uws.published.province | Ontario | en |
uws.typeOfResource | Text | en |
uws.peerReviewStatus | Unreviewed | en |
uws.scholarLevel | Graduate | en |