"Recent advances in electronic device technology, specifically microelectromechanical systems for RF frequencies (RF MEMS), have resulted in the development of near-ideal electronic switches for controlling and routing RF energy. These switches requirenegligible power consumption, have extremely… More

This proposal outlines the research and development advances in design, fabrication techniques, and packaging concepts required for the future production and manufacture of low-cost RF MEMS phase shifters at Ka-band. During this program, MEMtronics and its manufacturing partner will design, develop… More

During the course of this project, the unique advantages of software defined radios (SDRs), such as scalability and reconfigurability, will be applied to implement extremely compact communications systems for the MKV program. A key enabling technology for these radio systems, RF… More

In today's dense electromagnetic environment, proper allocation and management of spectrum is an overriding concern for US military forces. The migration to higher microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies has made much needed bandwidth available for military radar and communications. This… More

We propose a novel MEMS-based digital phase shifter targeted for Ka-band operation, but scalable down to X-band and up to W-band. This novel phase shifter will incorporate MEMtronics' state-of-the-art microencapsulated, capacitive MEMS switches to control phase. The envisioned phase shifter… More

In today's dense electromagnetic environment, proper allocation and management of spectrum is an overriding concern for US military forces. The migration to higher microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies has made much needed bandwidth available for military radar and communications. This… More

This project proposes the co-integration of the lowest loss MEMS switches (MEMtronics capacitive MEMS switches) and the lowest loss interconnect technology, that of Nuvotronics PolyStrata technology. Together, these two emerging technologies offer the best solution for building broadband,… More

MEMtronics and its teammates propose to develop phase shifters with less than 2 dB loss and better than 2 watts of power handling at X-band microwave frequencies. This program leverages the significant investments already made by the DoD for improving reliability and packaging of RF MEMS… More

The development of cryogenic microwave components, such as focal plane polarization modulators, first requires an RF MEMS switching technology that operates effectively at cryogenic temperatures. The approach of this project is to explore the performance of capacitive MEMS switching technology at… More

This project will identify and demonstrate characterization, testing, and modeling methodologies that significantly improve accelerated testing of high-power RF MEMS switches and phase shifters. These innovations will lead to at least a 5X test time reduction over current real-time life test… More

In today"s dense electromagnetic environment, proper allocation and management of spectrum is an overriding concern for U.S. military forces. The ubiquity of wireless systems places many radiators spectrally or physically near one another, impacting receiver performance through interference or… More

ABSTRACT: The main objective of this project is to design metamaterial-based MEM phase shifters, and to enable their application in phased-array radar and communications systems. A compact, low-loss, low-power-consumption, and non-dispersive Ka-band 4-bit phase shifter is chosen as the… More