Inline capacitive RF power sensor based on floating MEMS beam for GaAs MMIC applications

Abstract

A 0.01-20 GHz inline capacitive radio frequency (RF) power sensor with a floating microelectromechanical system (MEMS) beam is proposed. It is based on sensing the capacitance change of the MEMS beam above the coplanar waveguide line due to the electrostatic force. In the design, anchors of the MEMS beam are floating for accurate capacitive detection and flexible for increasing the sensitivity, and an impedance matching technique is utilised to improve the microwave performance. The fabrication of this sensor is compatible with the GaAs monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) process. The measured reflection loss of the capacitive sensor is