The development of RF MEMS technology has accelerated considerably over the past several years. RF MEMS technology provides immense capabilities for a new generation of reconfigurable networks such as phase shifters, matching networks, antennas and tunable filters used in wireless/satellite communication systems, automotive/defense radar systems and instrumentation equipment.

The focus of this talk is the development of wideband RF MEMS tunable filters. The most practical implementation of wideband tunable filters up to date has been based on Yttrium Iron Garnet (YIG) magnetic resonators. They can be tuned over a very wide frequency range and have a high quality factor over the tuning range. However, they are bulky, consume considerable amount of power and have poor linearity. One way to miniaturize wideband tunable filters is using planar structures with semiconductor or MEMS varactors. Semiconductor varactors can provide a wide tuning range, but they have serious loss and linearity issues, especially at microwave frequencies. MEMS varactors are very good candidates for miniaturized wide band tunable filters. Not only can they provide wide tuning range, but also their loss is small, their linearity is excellent (IIP3 > 60 dBm), and their power consumption is negligible.

Host: Behnaam Aazhang

Biography of Kamran Entesari:
Kamran Entesari received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 1995, the M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Tehran Polytechnic University, Tehran, Iran, in 1999 and the Ph.D. degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 2005. In 2006, he joined the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A & M University where his is currently an Assistant Professor. His research interests include Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) for microwave/millimeter-wave applications, microwave filters and passive components, design of radio frequency/microwave/millimeter-wave integrated circuits and systems, related front-end analog electronic circuits and antennas, and active and passive sensors. He has authored six papers in refereed IEEE journals and conferences and is a member of IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society.