Switchable piezoelectric filters using micro-electro-mechanical beam and design structures

    公开(公告)号:GB2498261A

    公开(公告)日:2013-07-10

    申请号:GB201223287

    申请日:2012-12-21

    Applicant: IBM

    Abstract: Switchable and/or tunable filters, methods of manufacture and design structures are disclosed herein. The method of forming the filters includes forming at least one piezoelectric (PE) filter structure comprising a plurality of electrodes 14, 16 formed on a PE 12. The method further includes forming a micro-electro-mechanical structure (MEMS) comprising a MEMS beam 26 formed above the PE substrate and at a location in which, upon actuation, the MEMS beam shorts the PE filter structure by contacting at least one of the plurality of electrodes. The PE filter may be surface acoustic wave (SAW) filter. The SAW filter may comprise input and output transducers comprising interleaved electrodes. The PE filter may be a bulk acoustic wave (BAW) filter. The beam may be perpendicular to the interleaved electrodes and may cover the whole area of the electrodes of at least one filter structure. The structure may be formed using computer aided design. In one embodiment the frequency of a filter may be determined and the beam may be actuated to contact one of the electrodes depending on the frequency.

    A switchable interdigital transducer in a SAW filter

    公开(公告)号:GB2499308A

    公开(公告)日:2013-08-14

    申请号:GB201300243

    申请日:2013-01-08

    Applicant: IBM

    Abstract: The fingers 22 of a movable electrode of an interdigital transducer (IDT) lie in a cavity above the piezoelectric layer 12 and are moved down to contact the layer 12, between the fingers 14 of a fixed electrode, by applying voltages to electrostatic actuator electrodes 16 or 24. Alternatively, the movable fingers 22 may be formed just above the layer 12 and the actuators used to move the fingers away from the layer 12 or to apply a downward pull-in contact force. The technique allows the switching into circuit of SAW filters without incurring the insertion loss caused by FET switches, or a reduction in Q factor. A SAW filter arrangement may be set to a desired frequency by activating or deactivating selected SAW filters.

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