LTCC-integrated MEMS switches and impedance tuners for field programmable amplifiers

Abstract

Designing a Field Programmable Microwave amplifier (FPMA) as the main objective of the present thesis is derived from the need in wireless communication systems to have circuits which are able to be reprogrammed in hardware without redundant circuits. Such circuits should be able to operate in wide-band frequency ranges while their total footprints kept as small as possible. To realize these objectives, a novel fabrication process using Low Temperature Co-Fired Ceramic (LTCC) and RF-MEMS (Microelectromechanical systems) technologies is developed as a published paper which uses a monolithic process to fabricate MEMS devices on top of functional LTCC substrates. Leveraging the functionality of LTCC and being able to fabricate and align MEMS circuit on top of embedded RF and DC circuits inside the LTCC, opened a path to provide a new design for reconfigurable microwave amplifiers. To this end, and to demonstrate the capability of the presented process, two design for low (3-5 GHz) and high bands (5-8 GHz) are proposed. Using the novel monolithic designs, embedded DMTL impedance tuners are fabricated in a simultaneous process with surface MEMS devices and an embedded sniffer to have a reconfigurable microwave amplifier. Designed FPMA is fabricated in a cascade form where embedded reflectometers are placed at the input of DMTL to detect proper input gamma of the transistor and send the data to DMTL to choose the best switching combination for frequency matching over the entire band. Fabricated modules are able to do the impedance matching with maximum input gain considering minimum losses that are derived from dielectric and conductors. Proposed designs are able to continuously do the impedance matching using the interaction between DMTL and embedded sniffers while total footprint of the module is kept as small as possible compared to the available works in the literature.

Date	21 Jan 2026
Original language	American English
Awarding Institution	École de technologie supérieure
Supervisor	Ammar B. Kouki (Supervisor)