Peter G. Lam

Distributed Passive Intermodulation Distortion on Transmission Lines

A theoretical treatment of distributed electro-thermally induced intermodulation distortion is developed for microstrip transmission lines. The growth of passive intermodulation distortion (PIM) along the length of a line is derived accounting for both loss and electrical dispersion. PIM dependencies on width, length, thickness, and substrate parameters are analyzed leading to design guidelines for low distortion lines. Single metal silver transmission lines are fabricated on sapphire and fused-quartz substrates to isolate the electro-thermal effect and validate the model. Electro-thermal PIM is measured in a two-tone test with tone separation ranging from 4 Hz to 10 kHz.

Discrete Barium Strontium Titanate (BST) Thin-Film Interdigital Varactors on Alumina: Design, Fabrication, Characterization, and Applications

Discrete barium strontium titanate (BST) thin-film capacitors in industry standard 0603 footprint are introduced and characterized. BST capacitors have a voltage-dependent permittivity, enabling BST thin-film capacitors to be used as tuning elements in frequency agile devices. The capacitance changed by 1.5:1 at 35 V (116 kV/cm) bias. The temperature dependence of the capacitance was measured to be less than plusmn 20 % from -100 degC to +100 degC. A 2nd-order tunable combline bandpass filter on FR4 substrate has been implemented using the discrete BST varactors. The filter showed a center frequency tuning of 22% from 2.14 GHz to 2.61 GHz upon application of 130 V (433 kV/cm) bias. The zero-bias insertion loss was 4.9 dB which decreased to 2.9 dB at the high bias state. The return loss was better than 11 dB over the tuning range. Nonlinear characterization of the filter using two-tone test and a digitally-modulated CDMA 2000 signal showed an IP3 of +32 dBm and an ACPR of better than -50 dBc up to 26 dBm of input power, respectively

Realizing strain enhanced dielectric properties in BaTiO3 films by liquid phase assisted growth

The addition of a liquid-forming flux to barium titanate thin films promotes densification and grain growth, improves nonlinear dielectric properties, and allows residual strain to be sustained in polycrystalline films without cracking at thicknesses relevant to device fabrication. Relative tuning, an excellent indicator of crystalline quality and an important material property for tunable microwave devices, increases from 20% to 70%. Films exhibit 0.15% residual differential thermal expansion mismatch strain, resulting in a shift to the paraelectric-ferroelectric phase transition of 50 °C. This result is in excellent agreement with theory, demonstrating the ability to tune ferroic transitions without epitaxial approaches.

Narrowband Barium Strontium Titanate (BST) tunable bandpass filters at X-band

A 3rd-order combline tunable filter with very narrow bandwidth at X-band is implemented utilizing ferroelectric Barium Strontium Titanate (BST) interdigitated varactors. The filter and its varactors are integrated on a ceramic substrate together with a simple resistive biasing circuit. Upon the application of a bias voltage ranging from 0 to 90 V the passband of the filter tuned from 8.127 to 9.973 GHz while maintaining a fractional bandwidth of approximately 4.8–5.9 %. Over the tuning band the passband insertion loss varied from 10.7 dB to 7.5 dB while the return loss was better than 15 dB. The tuning ratio is 23 %.

Scaling issues in ferroelectric barium strontium titanate tunable planar capacitors

We report on the geometric limits associated with tunability of interdigitated capacitors, specifically regarding the impact of a parasitic non-tunable component that necessarily accompanies a ferroelectric surface capacitor, and can dominate the voltage-dependent response as capacitor dimensions are reduced to achieve the small capacitance values required for impedance matching in the X band. We present a case study of simple gap capacitors prepared and characterized as a function of gap width (i.e., the distance between electrodes) and gap length (i.e., the edge-to-edge gap distance). Our series of measurements reveals that for gap widths in the micrometer range, as gap lengths are reduced to meet sub-picofarad capacitance values, the non-tunable parasitic elements limit the effective tunability. These experimental measurements are supported by a companion set of microwave models that clarify the existence of parallel parasitic elements.

Ultra-high tunability in polycrystalline Ba1−xSrxTiO3 thin films

Ba0.7Sr0.3TiO3 thin polycrystalline films with an ultra-high capacitance tunability approaching 5:1 at 175 kV/cm were made possible by a flux-assisted synthesis approach. In this process, a small volume fraction of a low melting temperature glass is added during low-temperature sputter deposition. Subsequent annealing activates the liquid phase, which in turn provides the mass transport needed to approach full density, to increase grain size, and to improve crystallinity, and, in so doing, achieves a stronger non-linear dielectric response. Ba0.7Sr0.3TiO3 films with 0%, 1%, 4%, and 7% BaO-3B2O3 flux exhibited grain sizes of 25 nm, 28 nm, 48 nm, and 56 nm, and dielectric tunabilities of 25%, 33%, 64%, and 80% respectively. These values represent substantial improvements when compared to conventionally processed tunable dielectric films.

A 6.2–7.5 GHz tunable bandpass filter with integrated Barium Strontium Titanate (BST) interdigitated varactors utilizing silver/copper metallization

A 3rd-order combline tunable filter is implemented utilizing ferroelectric Barium Strontium Titanate (BST) interdigitated varactors. The filter and its varactors are integrated on a ceramic substrate using a simple resistive biasing circuit. Upon the application of a bias voltage ranging from 0 to 40 V the passband of the filter tuned from 6.2 to 7.5 GHz while maintaining a fractional bandwidth of approximately 13.8 %. Over the tuning band the passband insertion loss varied from 8.5 dB to 6.3 dB while the return loss was better than 10 dB.

The impact of metallization thickness and geometry for X-band tunable microwave filters

The impact of dc resistance on the performance of X-band filters with ferroelectric varactors was investigated. Two series of combline bandpass filters with specific geometries to isolate sources of conductor losses were designed and synthesized. Combining the changes in filter geometry with microwave measurements and planar filter solver (Sonnet software) simulations quantitatively identified the dependency of insertion loss on overall metallization thickness and local regions of thin metallization. The optimized 8-GHz bandpass filters exhibited insertion losses of 6.8 dB. These filters required 2.5 ¿m of metal thickness (or 3 effective skin depths) to achieve this loss. The trend of loss with thickness indicates diminishing return with additional metal. The integration scheme requires thin regions of metal in the immediate vicinity of the varactors. It is shown through experiment and simulation that short distances (i.e., 15 ¿m) of thin metallization can be tolerated provided that they are located in regions where the resonant microwave current is low.

MI017 - Integrated microwave frequency tunable bandpass filter using barium strontium titanate varactors

A bandpass filter for the frequency range of 6¿9 GHz, based on tunable interdigital BST varactor is presented. This paper reports the processing steps required to obtain a functional and integrated bandpass filter, which include: via drilling and filling purpose, dielectric deposition, chromium/gold deposition and copper electroplating. Microwave measurements reveal an insertion loss range between 7¿11 dB, a 20 dB rejection band, a bandwidth of less than 500 MHz, and 1.73 GHz of frequency tunability.