MEMS analysis
to achieve major savings on the deployment of the new wireless infrastructure, amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars.
Beyond reception issues, a major reason why mobile phone makers are adopting RF MEMS is their capability to efficiently implement the proliferating number of standards and rising data usage of mobile phones.
In conventional mobile phone RF architectures utilized today, multiple standards and functions coexist with multiple RF paths, which are set in parallel. This architecture is not adapted to the evolution of mobile handsets, since it raises the number of components, size and cost, as well as the power consumption of mobile handsets. New, reconfigurable architectures are required to increase the functionality of phones while keeping size, cost and power consumption low.
Several options are in development, including antenna tuning and antenna matching, as well as impedance-matching networks for the power amplifier and tunable filters. Antenna tuning and matching, which can be achieved with RF MEMS, is the most popular approach today, as it can provides the most significant improvement in terms of sensitivity.
MEMS at work With its Samsung design win, WiSpry is leading the RF MEMS pack. However, other companies now are targeting this market, including TDK-EPC, Sony, Omron, RFMD, and the start-ups Cavendish-Kinetics and DelfMEMS.
Beyond RF MEMS, other technologies are being offered for mobile phone antenna-tuning applications with varying applications noted at this stage but with the possibility of more applicaitons in the future. Current applications that are seen as promising in the industry include the following:
Paratek Microwave Inc.’s barium strontium titanate (BST) tunable integrated circuits, which have been employed in a handful of phones starting in June 2011.
Peregrine Semiconductor Corp.’s DuNE antenna tuning devices, based on its silicon-on-sapphire switch technology. These devices have been shipping in one mobile phone since December 2011.
Gallium arsenide-based switches and tuners that are being sampled by other vendors.
© 2012 Angel Business Communications. Permission required.
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