RF components for wireless communication using CM-CMOS technology

Silicon technologies such as CMOS and BiCMOS have been traditionally consid ered as analog and digital electronic processing mediums. However, this has started to change recently by the application of new fabrication technique s borrowed from microelectromechanical systems technology (MEMS). The new m ethods have revitalized the semiconductor fabrication industry and have cre ated enormous new opportunities. In this work, a new micromachining technology, which is called CMOS-based m onolithic MEMS (CM-MEMS) technology, is introduced. Based on this technolog y several high frequency components have been demonstrated. These component s include high quality inductors, thermally-actuated capacitors and switche s, coplanar transmission lines, power dividers, and couplers. Recent experi mental and analytical results are presented. (c) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, In c.