TY - GEN
T1 - Gigahertz large-area-electronics RF switch and its application to reconfigurable antennas
AU - Wu, Can
AU - Ma, Yue
AU - Venkatesh, Suresh
AU - Mehlman, Yoni
AU - Wagner, Sigurd
AU - Sturm, James C.
AU - Verma, Naveen
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 IEEE.
PY - 2020/12/12
Y1 - 2020/12/12
N2 - Future IoT and 5G networks place significant new demands on antennas, where unguided EM waves are generated to access densely distributed sensor nodes. Reconfigurable antennas, capable of changing key parameters (directionality, frequency response, polarization), are starting to play a critical role, but are limited by the assembly of discrete RF components across the large antenna apertures typically desired. This work presents the design, and use in a reconfigurable antenna, of RF switches for 2.4 GHz-band wireless applications, based on large-area-electronics (LAE) zinc-oxide (ZnO) thin-film transistors (TFTs). ZnO TFTs can be fabricated monolithically on meter-scale and flexible substrates, as done in flat panel displays, but where their frequencies have been limited to 10's of MHz. RF switch performance is enabled for ZnO TFTs (fabricated at flex-compatible temp. <200°C) via self-aligned processing, thick-composite gate electrodes, breakdown-safe biasing, and resonant operation, leveraging high-Q LAE inductors. Reconfigurable antenna radiation patterns are demonstrated.
AB - Future IoT and 5G networks place significant new demands on antennas, where unguided EM waves are generated to access densely distributed sensor nodes. Reconfigurable antennas, capable of changing key parameters (directionality, frequency response, polarization), are starting to play a critical role, but are limited by the assembly of discrete RF components across the large antenna apertures typically desired. This work presents the design, and use in a reconfigurable antenna, of RF switches for 2.4 GHz-band wireless applications, based on large-area-electronics (LAE) zinc-oxide (ZnO) thin-film transistors (TFTs). ZnO TFTs can be fabricated monolithically on meter-scale and flexible substrates, as done in flat panel displays, but where their frequencies have been limited to 10's of MHz. RF switch performance is enabled for ZnO TFTs (fabricated at flex-compatible temp. <200°C) via self-aligned processing, thick-composite gate electrodes, breakdown-safe biasing, and resonant operation, leveraging high-Q LAE inductors. Reconfigurable antenna radiation patterns are demonstrated.
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U2 - 10.1109/IEDM13553.2020.9372057
DO - 10.1109/IEDM13553.2020.9372057
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85102950906
T3 - Technical Digest - International Electron Devices Meeting, IEDM
SP - 33.6.1-33.6.4
BT - 2020 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting, IEDM 2020
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 66th Annual IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting, IEDM 2020
Y2 - 12 December 2020 through 18 December 2020
ER -