RF-MEMS switches with AlN dielectric and their applications

This paper reports on the potential of RF-MEMS technology based on aluminum nitride capacitive dielectric and nickelsuspended membranes to provide RF circuit functions in reconfigurable front-end radios. The RF performance of capacitive switches, distributed MEMS transmission lines (DMTLs) phase shifters for beam steering and tunable filters, including center frequency and bandwidth tuning of bandpass and band-stop filters are presented. Detailed characterization based on S-parameter data demonstrates very promising figures of merit of all fabricated demonstrators from 5 to 40 GHz

Single Crystal Silicon UHF Wine-Glass Ring Resonator with HfO2 Solid Dielectric Gap embedded in a Field Effect Transistor

In this work we present an ultra-high-frequency (UHF) single crystal silicon ring resonator with two embedded FETs. Electromechanical coupling is realized through a high-K, namely 10 nm HfO2, dielectric solid-gap sandwiched between the gate electrode and the ring lateral surface. The higher permittivity of the solid-gap material as well as the technological possibility of having narrower gap than air-gap counterparts, will uniquely allow to improve at the same time the electromechanical coupling and the FET amplifcation by increasing the gate capacitance

Scalable conformal array for multi-gigabit body centric wireless communication

In this work a conceptual design of a conformal antenna array is presented for a millimeter-wave antenna system, optimized for low-cost mass production in PCB technology. The conformal array is constituted by four cube faces with two antennas realized on each face. A printed circuit board (PCB) laminate material was chosen for developing this integrated 60 GHz antenna solution. The beamforming capabilities of the 1 × 8 antenna array were validated using similar array topology but at frequency of 17.2 GHz. The proposed array enables the formation of a steerable high gain beam, significantly compensating the channel loss or shadowing in body area network (BAN), thus offering more robust, higher speed performance. The array topology is easily scalable and the antenna gain up till 12.2 dB is reachable. On one side such high gain combined with an agile beam steering is a significant power saving solution for RF front-end. On the other side a use of 60 GHz frequency band makes the antenna array extremely small and thus easily embeddable into wearable medical or commercial devices

Low power analog frontend for ISFET sensor readout

A low power analog frontend (AFE) for Ion-Sensitive Field effect Transistor sensor readout presented. The AFE is demonstrated with off-the-shelf components. It includes a biasing circuit to an ISFET sensor, a noise rejecting current readout circuit, and a igma-delta analog to digital converter. The digital output can be interpreted by a simple counter to acquire the ion-concentration in a drop of liquid on top of the calibrated ISFET sensor. A PH sensing experiment is performed validate the AFE. Total power consumption is less than 40 μW with 1.8 V supply

Carbon nanotube gas sensor array for multiplex analyte discrimination

The lack of selectivity toward a particular analyte has always been the primary concern regarding CNT-based gas sensors. For that reason, in here we present a gas discrimination strategy that focuses on the electrode-CNT junction. The junction is shown to play a key role in the sensing mechanism. Resistive gas sensors based on horizontal CNT arrays have been fabricated using various designs and different top-contacting metals: Pt, Pd and Au. Arrays of devices have been exposed to a series of gases to monitor their resistive response. It was found for our system that the sensor response does not significantly change as a function of the device design or the available CNT sensing area in between the anchoring electrodes. On the contrary, responses to gases are observed to be specific to each sensor electrode metal. Exposure of locally passivated devices (for which distinct areas have been covered) to NO2, H-2 and NH3 highlights different sensing mechanisms for each gas. Multiplex gas discrimination for room temperature can be achieved by strategically choosing the right metal/CNT combination in a complete sensor system. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Low power analog frontend for ISFET sensor readout

A low power analog frontend (AFE) for Ion-Sensitive Field effect Transistor sensor readout is presented. The AFE is demonstrated with off-the-shelf components. It includes a biasing circuit to bias an ISFET sensor, a noise rejecting current readout circuit, and a sigma-delta analog to digital converter. The digital output can be interpreted by a simple counter to acquire the ion-concentration in a drop of liquid on top of the calibrated ISFET sensor. A PH sensing experiment is performed to validate the AFE. Total power consumption is less than 40 µW with 1.8 V supply