Reduced-Size Low-Voltage RF MEMS X-Band Phase Shifter Integrated on Multilayer Organic Package

Abstract

This paper presents an X-band two-bit phase shifter that integrates single-pole four-throw (SP4T) piezoelectric microelectromechanical switches with a compact 3-D passive design on a liquid crystal polymer (LCP) organic substrate. The multilayer LCP process allows a low-cost and lightweight circuit that can easily be integrated with other radio frequency front-end components, such as an antenna, at the packaging level. By routing lines onto embedded multilayers, a 22.5% reduction in area is achieved. In addition, low-loss piezoelectric SP4T switches with a 7 V actuation voltage are used to switch between different phase delays. The phase shifter exhibits a loss of 0.75 dB/bit with 2.25° average phase error at 10 GHz.