DESIGN OF A 2-POLE DIGITALLY TUNABLE RF MEMS FILTER BASED ON A HYBRID SIMULATION APPROACH
M. HOUSSINI, A. POTHIER, P. BLONDY, A. CRUNTEANU, P. TRISTANT

Abstract. In this paper we present the design of a tunable filter based on capacitive RF MEMS switch loads by using an hybrid electromagnetic-circuit simulation approach. This technique allows dramatic reduced of the computational costs needed in order to optimize both the location of loads on the filter and also the capacitance values required to digitally tune the different resonant frequencies of the filter. Finally, EM simulations have been performed for validating our approach, showing the important savings on design time accomplished. The two pole filter designed on a 525 µm-thick quartz substrate occupies a total area of 1×1 cm2. Its center frequency can be discretely tuned using 2 capacitive bits from 9.34 to 10.8 GHz with 6% bandwidth. Return losses less than 15 dB and insertion losses <1 dB are expected over the whole operation band.