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As an alternative to highly constrained hard-wired reconfigurable RF circuits, a motion-enabled reconfigurable circuit (MERC) offers freedom from transmission line losses and homogeneous materials selection. The creation of a successful MERC requires a precise mechanical mechanism for relocating components. In this work, a piezoelectric MEMS actuator array is modeled and experimentally characterized to assess its viability as a solution to the MERC concept. Actuation and design parameters are evaluated, and the repeatability of high quality on-axis motion at greater than 1 mm s−1 is demonstrated with little positional error. Finally, an initial proof-of-concept circuit reconfiguration has been demonstrated using off-the-shelf RF filter components. Although initial feasibility tests show filter performance degradation with an additional insertion loss of 0.3 dB per contact, out-of-band rejection degradation as high as 10 dB, and ripple performance reduction from 0.25 dB to 1.5 dB, MERC is proven here as an alternative to traditional approaches used in reconfigurable RF circuit applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is continuing interest in radio frequency (RF) microelectromechanical system (MEMS) devices due to their ability to offer exceptional RF performance, high linearity and low power consumption. To date, there is an impressive amount of RF MEMS components such as; switches, resonators, varactors, and tunable inductors that have enabled smaller, cheaper and more efficient RF systems. RF MEMS devices contain micromachined components that have the ability to move so that a change in the mechanical state of a device will result in a change to the device’s RF properties. There are many common modes of actuation, including, but not limited to: electrostatic, magnetostatic, piezoelectric, and electrothermal actuation. Although there are attractive aspects and drawbacks to each of these technologies, this paper will focus on advances in the application of piezoelectric actuation, and in particular the use of lead zirconium titanate (PZT), for RF MEMS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]