Reliable MEMS Ka-Band Filters

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 migration, however, has also highlighted the need for high-performance filtering to mitigate jamming and co-site interference. This has translated into the need for frequency-agile filters with narrow fractional bandwidth that still possess reasonable losses. To this end, this proposed program will marry the highest performance MEMS technology, that of microencapsulated, capacitive MEMS switches, with the lowest loss transmission media, that of metal waveguides. these two technologies- one old and one new- will enable tunable filters at Ka-band frequencies which overcome the present limitations of tunable filters with unloaded Qs in the range of 50-150. This novel component technology will usher in a new generation of MEMS-tuned filters with narrow bandwidths, low loss, and high intercept point. This will be of great benefit to next generation military radar and communications systems where adaptive frequency management is required.