High-Efficiency On-Chip Antennas for mm-wave and THz Frequencies and Tunable RF MEMS

108 Pages·2015·13.77 MB·English

UC San Diego
UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Title
High-Efficiency On-Chip Antennas for mm-wave and THz Frequencies and Tunable RF MEMS
Circuits for Wireless Communications
Permalink
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/17z6x04v
Author
Gurbuz, Ozan Dogan
Publication Date
2015

Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation
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University of California
UNIVERSITYOFCALIFORNIA,SANDIEGO
High-EfficiencyOn-ChipAntennasformm-waveandTHzFrequenciesand
TunableRFMEMSCircuitsforWirelessCommunications
Adissertationsubmittedinpartialsatisfactionofthe
requirementsforthedegree
DoctorofPhilosophy
in
ElectricalEngineering(ElectronicCircuitsandSystems)
by
OzanDog˘anGu¨rbu¨z
Committeeincharge:
ProfessorGabrielM.Rebeiz,Chair
ProfessorWilliamHodgkiss
ProfessorBrianKeating
ProfessorKevinQuest
ProfessorDanielSievenpiper
2015
Copyright
OzanDog˘anGu¨rbu¨z,2015
Allrightsreserved.
ThedissertationofOzanDog˘anGu¨rbu¨zisapproved,anditis
acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm
andelectronically:
Chair
UniversityofCalifornia,SanDiego
2015
iii
DEDICATION
To my family, to the ones I never forget and see as my family and the
never grown-up kid in me...
iv
EPIGRAPH
Asanindicationofmybackgroundandkeypointsofmylife,
Read! InthenameofyourLord,whocreated.
-96: 1(al-’Alaq)
SeekknowledgeevenasfarasChina(Modified).
-ProphetMuhammad
IfIhaveseenfurther,itisbystandingontheshouldersofgiants..
-SirIsaacNewton
v
TABLEOFCONTENTS
SignaturePage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
Dedication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv
Epigraph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
TableofContents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
ListofFigures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
ListofTables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
Vita . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii
AbstractoftheDissertation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xx
Chapter1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 On-chipAntennaIntegration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 TunableCircuitsforWirelessCommunications . . . . . . . 2
1.3 ThesisOverview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Chapter2 THzantennas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 360GHzOn-chipEllipticalSlotAntennaForImagingArray
Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.2.1 AntennaDesign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.2.2 EffectofSuperstrateThickness . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2.3 EffectofMetalFills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2.4 Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3 375 GHz On-chip Elliptical Slot Antenna For Transmit Ar-
rayApplications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3.1 AntennaDesign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3.2 EffectofSuperstrateThickness . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3.3 EffectofMetalFills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.3.4 EffectofAirGap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.5 Acknowledgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
vi
Chapter3 160GHzOn-chipMicrostripAntennaForRadiometryApplications 22
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.2 AntennaDesign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.2.1 Geometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.2.2 RadiationEfficiencyvsSubstrateThickness . . . . . 24
3.2.3 RadiationEfficiencyvsSuperstrateThickness . . . . 27
3.3 Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.3.1 S-parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.3.2 GainandRadiationPattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.5 Acknowledgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Chapter4 1.6-2.3 GHz RF MEMS Reconfigurable Quadrature Coupler and
ItsApplicationtoa360o Reflective-TypePhaseShifter . . . . . . 33
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.2 Reconfigurablecoupler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.2.1 Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.2.2 Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.3 Reflectivephaseshifter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.3.1 Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
4.3.2 S-ParameterMeasurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
4.3.3 HighPowerandNon-LinearMeasurements . . . . . 47
4.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
4.5 Acknowledgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Chapter5 1.8-2.0 GHz Two-pole and Three-pole RF MEMS Tunable Notch
FilterswithBandwidthControl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
5.2 Filterdesign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
5.2.1 Filtertopology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
5.2.2 Resonatorandinverters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.3 Filterimplementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.3.1 Two-poleandthree-polefilters . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.3.2 S-parametermeasurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.3.3 High-powerandnon-linearitymeasurements . . . . 73
5.4 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.5 Acknowledgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Chapter6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
6.1 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
6.2 FutureWork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
vii
LISTOFFIGURES
Figure2.1: (a) Elliptical slot antenna dimensions, and (b) Detailed stack-up of
JazzSBC18H3processwithquartzsuperstrate. . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Figure2.2: Simulated|S |fordifferentquartzthicknesses. . . . . . . . . . . . 9
11
Figure2.3: Simulated (a) realized gain, and (b) efficiency for different quartz
thicknesses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Figure2.4: Metal fill cases (a) Tied to each other and connected to ground, (b)
Disconnectedfromeachotherandground,and(c)Nometalfills. . 10
Figure2.5: Fabricated360GHz4x4antennacoupleddetectorarray. . . . . . . 11
Figure2.6: Simulated|S |fordifferentmetalfillcases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
11
Figure2.7: Simulated(a)realizedgain,and(b)efficiencyfordifferentmetalfill
cases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Figure2.8: Simulated (a) E-plane, and (b) H-plane radiation patterns at 350
GHz,360GHz,370GHzforh =100µmandmetalfillCase1. 13
quartz
Figure2.9: (a) Elliptical slot antenna dimensions, and (b) Detailed stack-up of
IBM12SOICMOSprocesswithquartzsuperstrate. . . . . . . . . . 15
Figure2.10: Simulated|S |fordifferentquartzthicknesses. . . . . . . . . . . . 16
11
Figure2.11: Simulated (a) realized gain, and (b) efficiency for different quartz
thicknesses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Figure2.12: Metal fill cases (a) Tied to each other and connected to ground, (b)
Disconnectedfromeachotherandground,and(c)Nometalfills. . 17
Figure2.13: Simulated|S |fordifferentmetalfillcases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
11
Figure2.14: Simulated(a)realizedgain,and(b)efficiencyfordifferentmetalfill
cases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Figure2.15: Simulated (a) E-plane, and (b) H-plane radiation patterns at 360
GHz,375GHz,390GHzforh =100µmandmetalfillCase1. 19
quartz
Figure2.16: Simulated|S |fordifferentairgapthicknesses. . . . . . . . . . . 20
11
Figure2.17: Simulated (a) realized gain, and (b) efficiency for different air gap
thicknesses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Figure3.1: (a) Three dimensional stack-up of the microstrip antenna, (b) Mi-
crostrip antenna dimensions, and (c) Detailed stack-up of the IBM
9HPprocesswithquartzsuperstrate. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Figure3.2: Simulated|S |forquartzthicknessof250µmfor(a)M14Bground,
11
and(b)M3ground. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Figure3.3: Simulated (a) directivity and realized gain , and (b) efficiency for
M14BandM3ground. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Figure3.4: Simulated|S |fordifferentquartzthicknesses. . . . . . . . . . . . 26
11
Figure3.5: Simulated (a) realized gain, and (b) efficiency for different quartz
thicknesses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Figure3.6: Measured|S |fordifferentquartzthicknesses. . . . . . . . . . . . 27
11
viii
Figure3.7: (a) Fabricated on-chip microstrip antenna, and (b) Setup for gain
andradiationpatternmeasurements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Figure3.8: (a) Measured realized gain for different quartz thicknesses, and (b)
Measuredandsimulatedrealizedgainatitspeakandat158GHz. . 29
Figure3.9: Measured and simulated radiation patterns at 156 GHz, 160 GHz,
and164GHzfor(a)E-plane,and(b)H-plane. . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Figure4.1: Reconfigurablequadraturecouplertopologieswitheither(a)loaded
atthejunctionor(b)loadedonthebranch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Figure4.2: Reconfigurable quadrature coupler analysis: (a) odd mode (b) even
mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Figure4.3: (a) One corner of the reconfigurable coupler, and (b) required load-
ingcapacitancevaluesfordifferentcenterfrequencies. . . . . . . . 36
Figure4.4: Cavendish Kinetics device : (a) pads and internal structure, and (b)
measuredandsimulatedparameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Figure4.5: Tunable quadrature coupler : (a) fabricated circuit, and (b) center
frequencyatdifferentstates. TheTRLcalibrationplanesareshown
indashedlines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Figure4.6: Measuredreconfigurablequadraturecouplerreflectionandisolation. 40
Figure4.7: Measured reconfigurable quadrature coupler amplitude and phase
imbalance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Figure4.8: Tunable reflective phase shifter : (a) schematic, (b) complex load
Γ for f = 2.0 GHz, and (c) fabricated circuit with detailed view of
o
L ,C ,L ,C , and a capacitor loading the 90o coupler. The TRL
1 1 2 2
calibrationplanesareshownindashedlines. . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Figure4.9: Measured phase shifter reflection, transmission, and transmission
phaseatthecenterfrequencyof2.0GHz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Figure4.10: Simulated and measured maximum phase shift for different center
frequencies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Figure4.11: Measuredaverageloss,RMSamplitudeerror,andRMSphaseerror.
Measured values are shown at center frequencies of 2.2, 2.1, 2.0,
1.9, 1.8, 1.7 and 1.6 GHz, and simulated values are shown at 2.15,
2.05,1.95,1.85and1.75GHz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Figure4.12: Measured P vs. P at 2.0 GHz (similar measurements were done
in out
at1.8GHzand2.2GHzwiththesameresults). . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Figure4.13: Measured (a) IP at 2.0 GHz and 0o state, and (b) IIP at different
3 3
frequenciesandstates. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Figure4.14: Measured (a) 2nd harmonic component, and (b) 3rd harmonic com-
ponentat22dBmand30dBmofinputpower. . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Figure4.15: Measured linearity at (a) 1.8 GHz and 180o state, and (b) 2.0 GHz
and0o statewith33dBmW-CDMAsignal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
ix