High-Q and widely-tunable all-silicon resonators and filters for microwave and millimeter-wave applications

The development of a truly re-configurable, next generation software defined radio (SDR) is challenged by its RF front-end design due to dearth of a high-performance, compact, continuously-tunable broadband filter with low power consumption. This work presents a novel fabrication technology for realizing tunable filters capable of meeting these stringent SDR requirements. This all-silicon technology has been successfully employed to demonstrate tunable resonators/filters in C, X, Ku and K bands with simultaneous high unloaded quality factors Qu (\u3e 500) and tuning ratios (\u3e 2:1). Additionally, this technology offers several key advantages like monolithic (system-on-chip) integration, low cost batch processing and compatibility with CMOS processing. To the best of our Knowledge, the tunable cavity resonators and filters presented in this work are first of their kind and their simultaneous high-Qu and tuning ratio performances are unparalleled to date. It is believed that the presented technology has a great potential for developing high performance tunable resonators and filters for microwave and millimeter-wave SDR applications