Mathieu Paillard

Carbon Nanotube Based Dielectric for Enhanced RF MEMS Reliability

This paper presents the fabrication and experimental results of capacitive MEM switches with a carbon nanotubes (CNT) based dielectric for the first time to our knowledge. Double wall nanotubes (DWNT) have been incorporated in the switch silicon nitride dielectric to modify its properties regarding the charging effect. The impact of the CNT density on the MEMS reliability has been demonstrated: a switch lifetime enhancement greater than two orders of magnitude has been achieved.

Flip-chip mounted, Ku band power amplifier compliant with space applications

Following the trends of todays increased power density into power components arena, latest developments on advanced thermal management at component level are presented. Power flip chip technology was applied to commercial HB20P heterostructure bipolar transistor technology from UMS. Results of flip-chip mounted high power amplifier on Aluminum Nitride, packaged in a space compatible micro-package are discussed.

MEMS-based MCM VCO for space applications

This paper presents the implementation and test of prototype RF MEMS based voltage controlled oscillators (VCO) for space applications. RF MEMS tunable capacitors based on a dual gap architecture have been manufactured with a thin film technology on silicon and have demonstrated high tuning ratio (Cmax/Cmin ~ 4) and high Q factors (up to 100) with a good reproducibility. These tunable capacitors have been integrated as frequency tuning element in the LC tank of multi chip modules (MCM) VCO operating around 1.6 GHz with a tuning range greater than 16% and a phase noise as low as -125 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset from the carrier

PRIME 2007 High quality medium power RF-MEMS based impedance tuner for smart microsystem integration

This paper presents the design and fabrication of an impedance tuner integrated thanks an RF-MEMS technology which is fully compatible with IC. The developed technology aims to fabricate RF-MEMS devices which are able to handle medium RF-power and also targets to be compatible with IC integration. Concerning the design, we have defined an appropriate methodology, specifically developed for RF-MEMS devices, which takes into account the large dispersion on the RF-MEMS contact quality and then down state capacitor value, and the values of generated impedances that we want as large as possible. The prospective of this work is to associate monolithically a power amplifier with this high Q (and then low losses) tuner in order to be able to tune the PAE or even the operating class.

Temperature stress impact on power RF MEMS switches

In this paper, capacitive RF-MEMS switches topologies are investigated regarding their power handling capabilities. The topologies differ from the ability to handle thermal stress by an optimization of their anchorage arms. A specific meander arms design leads in fact to enhance by a decade the flexibility regarding their thermal expansion. To evaluate the proposed RF-MEMS morphology, a specific thermal stress protocol has been defined and applied from 20°C up to 120°C. The monitoring of air gap, actuation voltage and insertion losses has been performed after each thermal stress in order to check the impact of the temperature on working switch. The main result indicates that a different thermal behavior depending on the MEMS anchorage arms morphology has been obtained.