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Design of Micro-Machined Frequency Reconfigurable Cascaded Sierpinski

Gasket Fractal Antenna using RF-MEMS Switches

Conference Paper · December 2021

DOI: 10.1109/IMaRC49196.2021.9714624

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 IEEE IMaRC2021 1570760195

Design of Micro-Machined Frequency

1  
2  
Reconfigurable Cascaded Sierpinski Gasket Fractal
3  
4   Antenna using RF-MEMS Switches
5  
6  
7   Ashish Kumar Bikash Chandra Sahoo Gurmeet Singh
Department of E.C.E Department of E.C.E Department of E.C.E
8  
2021 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave and RF Conference (IMARC) | 978-1-6654-5875-7/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/IMaRC49196.2021.9714624

SLIET, Longowal IGIT, Sarang, Dhenkanal Punjabi University, Patiala

9   Sangrur, Punjab, India Odisha, India Punjab ,India
10   ashish@sliet.ac.in bikashsahoo2020@gmail.com ergurmeet96@gmail.com
11  
12   A.P. Singh
13   Department of E.C.E
14   SLIET, Longowal
15   Sangrur, Punjab, India
16   apsingh@sliet.ac.in
17  
18   Abstract—In this article, a multiband high gain frequency antenna. But due to surface waves excitation in the high
reconfigurable cascaded Sierpinski gasket fractal antenna index substrates; it becomes tedious task to achieve the high
19  
(CSGFA) is proposed. The final iteration of the proposed gain, efficiency and wide bandwidth. So, to develop the
20   design has been simulated on the high index silicon substrate proposed antenna using high index substrates,contradicts
21   with relative permittivity of 11.9 and height of 675µm with the with the patch antenna designed on low index substrates like
22   utilization of micro-machining mechanism. Finally, the roger and FR4. Therefore, an alternative solution to this
23   proposed iteration of the design is made frequency problem has been dealt with the process of bulk micro-
24   reconfigurable with the incorporation of shunt capacitive machining [6].
25   micro-electro-mechanical switch (MEMS). The final design Reconfigurable antennas are in very much demand in
26   shows significant shift in the operating frequencies with present scenario of wireless communication.
acceptable gain around 10 dBi along with the compatibility of
27   the design with monolithic microwave integrated circuits
Reconfigurability in antenna structure can be achieved by
28   (MMICs).
configuring three characteristics, which include operating
29   frequency, radiation pattern and polarization. It can be
30   performed by incorporating different radio frequency (RF)
31   Keywords— Micro-Machining, Fractal, MEMS switches, switches (PIN diode, varactor diode, MEMS switches) in the
32   Reconfigurability patch antenna. Among these switches, MEMS switches are
proven to be the best among other type of switching due to
33  
their low insertion loss and high isolation. However, MEMS
34   I. INTRODUCTION
switches suffers from the low switching speed, high
35   Over the past few decades, modern wireless actuation voltage problems but over the past few decades,
36   communication systems demand the antenna design with these problems are handled by designing the beam structure
37   multiple characteristics like miniaturized size, high gain, with low spring constant [7]. Another contribution of this
38   wide bandwidth, high data rate, multiband operations, manuscript lies in the multiband operation of the patch
39   compatibility with monolithic microwave integrated circuits antenna utilizing the fractal geometry for the design in the
40   (MMICs), reconfigurability according to the changing patch layer of antenna [8].
41   environment conditions. Microstrip patch antennas are the Various reconfigurable antennas have been reported in
42   prime candidate to meet the above requirements [1]. Above the past. For instance, in [9] a Complementary Sierpinski
43   mentioned characteristics are highly influenced by the design gasket antenna with nine MEMS switches has been designed
44   considerations of the patch antenna. For instance, to resonate in low frequency bands but without mentioning
miniaturization and multiband operations in the patch any gain of the proposed design. In the similar attempts [10]
45  
antennas can be achieved by altering the current distribution patch with different number of MEMS switches has been
46   in the patch and ground plane, which further leads the designed for low and high frequency respectively with very
47   antenna researchers towards the adaptation of fractal low gain. In another design [11] a conventional rectangular
48   geometries and defected ground structures to design the patch has been designed with three RF-MEMS switches with
49   patch antennas [2]. In the similar manner, high data rate and silicon substrate for Ku-band applications with low gain and
50   channel capacity has been achieved with the multi-input broadside radiation pattern From the above discussion, it can
51   multi output (MIMO) design of different configuration [3]. be concluded that still there are many windows open for the
52   Further, patch antennas are made compatible with research in case of reconfigurable antennas using MEMS
53   MMICs by designing the patch on high relative permittivity switches. So, an attempt has been made to design the patch
54   substrate like silicon and Gallium arsenide [4] and also antenna by incorporating the above characteristics in this
55   reconfigurability in the patch can be achieved by article. A cascaded Sierpinski gasket fractal antenna is
56   incorporating the suitable switching network in the patch designed, which is made MMIC compatible by proposing it
57   antenna [5]. The patch antenna characteristics majorly on micro-machined high index substrate. Further, fractal
60   depend upon the choice of the substrate and its thickness. For design is made frequency reconfigurable by incorporating the
MMIC compatibility, high relative permittivity substrates micro-electro-mechanical switches.
61  
like silicon and GaAs are suitable to design the patch
62  
63  
64  
65   XXX-X-XXXX-XXXX-X/XX/$XX.00 ©20XX IEEE

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 II. DESIGN OF SHUNT CAPACITIVE RF-MEMS SWITCH
Final iteration of the proposed design has been made
frequency reconfigurable with the incorporation of MEMS
switch. A capacitive shunt type MEMS switch has been used
to achieve the reconfigurability in the proposed design. The
switch is designed with a gold membrane suspended above
the Co-planer Waveguide Structure (CPW) with 60/100/60
µm specifications. The side view and the top view of the
switch have been shown in Fig. 1 (a) and (b) respectively.
The working principle of the MEMS switch lies on the
mechanical movement of the membrane with respect to the
force to get the switch in OFF and ON condition in the
transmission line. Various methods like electrostatic,
magneto static, piezoelectric and thermal can be utilized to
generate force.
For the MEMS designer the prime target is to reduce the
pull in voltage. From above equation it can be inferred that,
it can be reduced by (a) increasing the value of (beam
width) and electrode which will enhance the overlapping
area and consequently increase the overall area of the switch
(b) (decreasing) the gap between the membrane and
electrode which will give rise to affect the up-state
capacitance hence disturbs the capacitance ratio (c) the most
appropriate way is to use the beam structure with low spring
constant. Spring constant of the beam depends upon
dimensions of the beam and expressed in the equation (3).
3
t 
k = 32 Ew   (3)
l 
Here,
E = young’s Modulus of the material used to manufacture
membrane structure
w = width of the membrane
l = length of the membrane
t = thickness of the membrane.
The dimensional and operational specification of the above
designed switch has been shown in the table I.

TABLE I. DIMENSIONAL PARAMETERS OF SWITCH

(a)
Parameters Value
Co-planer waveguide structure (G/W/G) 60/100/60 µm
Young’s Modulus of the Gold material used for the beam € 80 Gpa
Width of the beam (w) 500 µm
Length of the beam (l) 1700 µm
Thickness of the beam (t) 1 µm
Width of the Actuating Electrode in CPW structure (W) 100 µm
Overlapping Area (A) 500×100µm2
Gap between the Beam and the Actuating electrode (g) 3 µm
Thickness of the Dielectric 0.12 µm
Spring Constant (k) 0.26 N/m
Pull in Voltage (Vp) 2.165 V

III. PROPOSED ANTENNA DESIGN

(b)
The proposed design of CSGFA is inspired and extended
Fig. 1. RF-MEMS shunt capacitive switch (a) side view (b) top version of the Sierpinski gasket fractal geometry designed
view
up to third iteration in as shown in Fig. 2 [13]. The proposed
Among the above-mentioned methods, electrostatic antenna is designed on silicon substrate with dielectric
actuation is most popular due to its advantages like less constant = 11.9 and thickness = 0.675 mm. The fractal patch
consumption of power, small size of electrode, very short antenna is fed with direct feeding line with matching
switching time. The electrostatic force is given by following feeding line. The final iteration of the proposed antenna is
expression [12] analyzed on the micro-machined silicon substrate to achieve
the MMIC compatibility. The dimensional parameters of the
ε AV 2 final iteration of the design are shown in Fig. 3. The micro-
F= (1)
2g 2 machining is a mechanism used in antenna designed on high
Here relative permittivity substrates like silicon or GaAs. This
A = overlapping area between electrode and membrane process was first implemented on the patch antenna in [8].
V = voltage applied between membrane and the electrode With the use of high index substrate, there is a degradation
g = gap between membrane and the electrode. of performance parameters due to the excitation of surface
With the gradual increase in the voltage, force also increases waves.
but the gap between the membrane and electrode decreases.
So, at 2/3rd of gap the pull in voltage (where beam collapses
completely) is given by following expression.
8k
Vp = g3 (2)
27 ∈0 A
(a) (b)
Here
k = equivalent spring constant (value depends upon the
design of the membrane)
ε0 = free space permittivity,

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(c) (d)
Fig. 2. CSGFA Iterations (a) zeroth (b) First (c) Second (d) Third
Fig. 3. Dimensional parameters of the proposed antenna
The overall dielectric constant of the substrate can be
reduced by etching the substantial portion of the high
dielectric constant material underneath the patch as shown
in Fig. 4, which will further improve the gain and bandwidth
of the antenna. The slanting position of the cavity is due to
the anisotropic attributes of the etching mechanism. The
proposed fractal design has been made frequency
reconfigurable using MEMS switches as shown in Fig. 5
and simulated in high frequency structure simulator (HFSS).
Switches connect the adjacent triangles to increase the
overall area of the patch antenna.
Fig. 4. Micro-machining concept in proposed antenna
Fig. 5. Reconfigurable cascaded Sierpinski gasket fractal antenna
The frequency switching has been achieved by moving the
beam upward or downward with the electrostatic actuation
voltage, which will increase the overall dimension of the
patch and accordingly frequency shifting takes place. One
more reason for the alteration in frequency is that when the
switch is in ON position the capacitance of the metal strip
appears in shunt with the input impedance of the patch
antenna. This capacitance tunes the patch to a shifted
operating frequency [14].
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IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. Resonance Characteristics of the Proposed design
The performance of the above designed antenna is
characterized by the resonance and radiation characteristics
of the design. The resonance attributes of the design with
the condition of the switches has been shown in Fig. 6.
Fig. 6. Variation in resonance attributes of the proposed design
It can be observed that there is a shifting in the operating
frequency at almost all the frequency bands. For instance, in
the C-band there is a shift of 290 MHz (6.63 GHz to 6.34
GHz) can be observed with the down condition of the
switches. In similar manner, there is an intra-band (X-band
to C-band) shifting of 290 MHz (8.25 GHz to 7.96 GHz) has
been achieved. There is a shift of about 1 GHz (10.92 GHz
to 9.87 GHz) can be observed in the X-band but with poor
impedance matching. Similarly, the actuation of switches
has also affected the frequencies in Ku-band. it can be
observed that the 15.13 GHz has been shifted to 14.27 GHz
(0.86 GHz) with excellent impedance matching of -25 dB.
Also, there is a shifting from 16.75 GHz to 15.98 GHz
(0.77) but with poor impedance matching along with no
shifting at 17.7 GHz frequency band. From the above
discussion it can be concluded that there is frequency shift at
almost all the operating frequencies in different bands (C-
band, X-band and Ku-band).
B. Radiation Characterisitcs of the proposed design (in
switch OFF state)
The lowest gain of 2.2 dBi and 3.8 dBi can be observed at
the lowest operating frequencies in C-band which are 6.34
GHz and 7.96 GHz. As the operating frequency moves
towards the higher band like in Ku-band corresponding
value of gain is increasing. For instance, a high gain of 6.9
dBi can be observed at 14.2 GHz. At the edge of Ku-band,
highest gain of 9.7 dBi has been achieved at 17.7 GHz. The
2D (E-plane and H-plane) radiation patterns for the
proposed design with switches in OFF condition are shown
in Fig. 7.
(a) (b) (c)

(d)
Fig. 7. 2D radiation patterns of the propsoed design (when switches are in
OFF condition) (a) 6.34 GHz (b) 7.96 GHz (c) 14.2 GHz (d) 17.7 GHz
it can be observed that both E- and H-planes are broadside
in nature except there are some irregularities at high
operating frequency.
C. Radiation Characterisitcs of the proposed design (in
switch ON state)
In this section, 2D radiation patterns of the proposed design
with the switches in ON condition has been illustrated as
shown in Fig. 8. A very small gain of 2.1 dBi is achieved at
the lowest operating frequency of 6.63 GHz in C-band. A
moderate gain of 3.5 dBi has been achieved in the frequency
falling in X-band. Similarly, high gain of 7.2 dBi, 8.3 dBi
and 10.4 dBi has been achieved in the Ku-band frequencies.
It can be observed that both E- and H-planes are broadside
in nature except there are some irregularities at high
operating frequency.
(a) (b) (c)
(d) (e)
Fig. 8. 2D radiation patterns of the propsoed design (when switches are in
ON condition) (a) 6.63 GHz (b) 8.28 GHz (c) 15.13 GHz (d) 16.7 GHz (e)
17.7 GHz
D. Performance Parameters of the Proposed Design
The performance parameters of the proposed design
have been shown in table II, which depicts the resonance
frequencies with gain and shift in the frequencies with the
operating condition of the switches. The bandwidth is quite
small at all the frequency bands except at 14.2 GHz in the
switch OFF condition.
V. CONCLUSION
This article presents the multiple frequency
reconfigurable micro-machined cascaded Sierpinski gasket
fractal antenna using RF-MEMS Switches. The final design
resonates at various frequencies in C, X and Ku-band with
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acceptable impedance matching and gain. The proposed
designed patch antenna can be dynamically reconfigured to
operate at multiple different operating frequencies separated
by few MHz with high gain. There is a maximum shift of 1
GHz has been achieved in the X-band with the actuation of
switches and the highest gain of 10.4 dBi is achieved at 17.7
GHz with switches in ON condition. The proposed design
can be used in various applications of satellite
communications such as, for transmit and receive functions
in earth exploration satellite communication.
TABLE II. PERFORMANCE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PROPOSED DESIGN
WITH THE CONDITION OF SWITCHES
Switches ON Switches OFF
Resonant Frequency 6.63, 8.2, 15.13, 16.7, 6.34, 7.96, 14.2,
(GHz) 17.7 17.7
S11 (dB) -13.8, -13.9, -11.7, - -15.8, -18.2, -23.7, -
13.4, -19.6 11.3
Gain (dBi) 2.1, 3.57, 7.2, 8.3, 10.4 2.2, 3.8, 6.9, 9.7
Bandwidth 110, 170, 230, 200, 280 120, 150, 760, 180
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