简介: |
Recent advances in vibrating RF MEMS technology that yield on-chip resonators with Q’s over 10,000 at GHz frequencies and excellent thermal and aging stability, have now positioned vibrating micromechanical devices as strong candidates for inclusion into a number of future wireless communication sub-systems, from cellular handsets, to PDA’s, to low-power networked sensors. Indeed, early start-ups have already sprouted to take advantage of this technology for timekeeper applications, and the timing of this technology seems well placed for wireless markets, for which the requirement for multi-mode reconfigurability fuels a need for on-chip high-Q resonators to prevent the cost of the front-end passives in a typical handset from obviating that of the transistor integrated circuits (IC’s). But the benefits of vibrating RF MEMS technology go far beyond mere component replacement. In fact, the extent of the performance and economic benefits afforded by vibrating RF MEMS devices grows exponentially as researchers and designers begin to perceive them more as building blocks than as stand-alone devices. In particular, when integrated into micromechanical circuits, in which vibrating mechanical links are connected into larger, more general networks, previously unachievable signal processing functions become possible, such as reconfigurable RF channel-selecting filter banks, ultra-stable reconfigurable oscillators, mechanical power converters, mechanical power amplifiers, frequency domain computers, and frequency translators. This talk focuses on the MEMS technologies most suitable to micromechanically realizing the frequency gating RF front-end needed by true software-defined cognitive radios. |
