Research Projects

In the communication domain, an unswerving, trustworthy and secure system with augmented efficiency and reduced power consumption is always required. The contemporary devices for filtering, switching, and tuning functions are typified by manufacturing costs and high-power consumption. Till 5 GHz communication, the response of solid-state devices is good. However, at higher frequencies, the electromagnetic response of these devices starts to degrade. For 6G communication, a frequency of more than 95 GHz is selected. For these frequency ranges, advanced vacuum devices are preferred due to their high performance. However, the cost and size of these devices are unsuitable for 6G communication applications. Further, batch production of these components is also not possible. On the other hand, terahertz MEMS technology addresses these shortcomings and offers the performance as per vacuum devices and size scales comparable with solid-state devices. There are two major factors, parasitic and up-state capacitance, which affect the electromagnetic response of the switch and limit its maximum operating frequency. We have already developed the MEMS switches for 5G applications (28-30 GHz) and developed scaling laws for higher frequency ranges. With scaling down the dimensions, very good performance of MEMS switches till 100 GHz is achieved on High-Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS). The insertion loss is less than 0.4 dB, isolation is better than 20 dB, and return loss is better than 25 dB. The most important factor for MEMS terahertz switch is its high linearity with frequency. The same switch can be used for all communication bands like 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, and 6G applications which is not possible with any other technology. Using scaling laws, these simulations and concepts are proposed the first time. The only limitations of MEMS technology are its reliability and power handling capabilities. The proposed switches can handle 5 milliwatt terahertz power which is good for mobile communication. In this proposal, reliability is improved using the reinforced technique. The second important feature of the technology is batch production. The fabrication process of MEMS terahertz switches is modified to make them post-CMOS compatible.