Miniaturized Reconfigurable Microfabricated Waveguide Circuits

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The information and communications industry in Canada is an area of strategic national interest that is enjoying phenomenal growth, especially in the wireless sector. For example, wireless and communications equipment manufacturing in Canada has experienced a 12.5% average annual growth from 2002-2011, according to Industry Canada statistics (NAICS category 33422) [1]. The market continues to be fueled by increased demand for mobile applications and devices, multi-media and satellite services, and wireless sensors. Radio frequency systems are a critical and substantive portion of any of these technologies, and are responsible for efficiently receiving, filtering, and sending the high frequency signals at the front end of their transceivers. ***Recently, wafer-level thin film and micro/nano technology-based systems have been used to surpass the limits of conventional devices and pave the way for miniaturized integrated systems with superior performance. There are three unique features of micro/nano technology that attract a high level of attention in the radio frequency community. These characteristics are miniaturization, multiplicity, and microelectronics compatibility. Miniaturization is clearly an important part of micro/nano technology, allowing the construction of components and subsystems that are both extremely small in size and high in performance. Multiplicity is inherent in micro-machining processing, which allows hundreds or thousands of components to be created concurrently and as easily as one. Micro-electronic compatibility allows the monolithic integration of micromechanical systems with microelectronics on a single chip, with benefits to cost, size, reliability and performance. ***In this research, the benefits of micro-technology will be used to advance millimeter-wave front-end systems. These benefits arise from the favorable scaling behavior of mechanical systems to micro scale dimensions and their ability to transmit radio frequency signals. We will develop high quality miniaturized millimeter-wave reconfigurable wafer-level waveguide systems that incorporate microelectromechanical components. The ultimate goal is to have structures with small form factor and the capability of adapting the transfer function to demand. In many cases, such components would not only substantially reduce the size, weight, power consumption and component counts, but also promise superior performance and additional functionality.