A Micromachined Two-state Bandpass Filter using Series Inductors and MEMS Switches for WLAN Applications

A Micromachined Two-state Bandpass Filter using Series Inductors and MEMS Switches for WLAN Applications

This paper reports a novel tunable bandpass filter using two-state switched inductor with direct-contact MEMS switches for wireless LAN applications. In our filter configuration, the switched inductor is implemented to obtain more stable and much larger frequency tuning ratio compared with variable capacitor-based tunable filter. The proposed tunable filter was fabricated using a micromachining technology and electrical performances of the fabricated filter were measured. The filter consists of spiral inductors, MIM capacitors and direct-contact type MEMS switches, and its frequency tunability is achieved by changing the inductance that is induced by ON/OFF actuations of the MEMS switches. The actuation voltage of the MEMS switches was measured of 58 V, and they showed the insertion loss of 0.1 dB and isolation of 26.3 dB at 2 GHz, respectively. The measured center frequencies of the fabricated filter were 2.55 GHz and 5.1 GHz, respectively. The passband insertion loss and 3-dB bandwidth were 4.2 dB and 22.5 % at 2.55 GHz, and 5.2 dB and 23.5 % at 5.1 GHz, respectively.