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12 - Reconfigurable architectures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2014

By
Tauno Vähä-Heikkilä
Edited by
Stepan Lucyszyn
Tauno Vähä-Heikkilä
Affiliation:
Valtion Teknillinen Tutkimuskeskus (VTT)
Stepan Lucyszyn
Affiliation:
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London
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Summary

Introduction

The focus of R&D activities in RF microsystems has been mostly at component and circuit levels. Component and circuit performances have tried to improve those of their semiconductor counterparts. This work has been successful in many cases. From the systems level point of view, RF MEMS technology offers improvements in tuning range, power linearity, insertion loss and scalability compared with other technologies. Tuning range relates to high-capacitance ratio switches, rather than continuous tuneability; a limitation that still exists with RF MEMS varactors. However, systems level improvements and new architectures can take full advantage of RF MEMS technology. Proposals for new architectures are continually being presented, but limited demonstrations have been reported to date.

For many applications, more and new functionalities are being sought by radio front-ends, to meet size and cost downscaling pressures. For example, several radios can be integrated into handsets and software-defined radio (SDR) concepts have been implemented in several applications. RF MEMS technology can be one of the enabling technologies to allow these new concepts to be implemented. The use of RF MEMS technology can offer the largest benefits when there are no directly competing technologies and in-high performance applications.

Type
Chapter
Information
Advanced RF MEMS , pp. 343 - 358
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

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References

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