Abstract
This paper presents an experimental study of the influence of thermally induced packaging stress from a die-attaching process on the behavior of a distributed Radio Frequency Microelectromechanical Systems (RF MEMS) phase shifter. The phase shifter consists of a high-impedance coplanar waveguide transmission line periodically loaded with 16 shunt capacitive MEMS switches. It shows that the thermal stress has an apparent effect on the phase shift characteristic of the device. Up to 13 GHz, the variation of the phase shift before and after the packaging process can be as large as about 160°. Nonuniformity of the stress across the chip is used to explain this behavior. The results presented here suggest that the stress nonuniformity has to be considered during the package design of the distributed RF MEMS device.
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The project is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 61106114.
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Zhao, C., Song, J., Han, L. et al. Effects of thermally induced packaging stress on a distributed RF MEMS phase shifter. Microsyst Technol 21, 869–874 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-014-2202-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-014-2202-z