The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 28, 1999
Filed:
Jan. 08, 1998
Mau Chung Chang, Thousand Oaks, CA (US);
Henry O Marcy, 5sup.th, Camarillo, CA (US);
Kenneth D Pedrotti, Thousand Oaks, CA (US);
David R Pehlke, Thousand Oaks, CA (US);
Charles W Seabury, Calabasas, CA (US);
Jun J Yao, Thousands Oaks, CA (US);
Sangtae Park, Simi Valley, CA (US);
J L Tham, Irvine, CA (US);
Deepak Mehrotra, Thousand Oaks, CA (US);
James L Bartlett, Cedar Rapids, IA (US);
Rockwell Science Center, LLC, Thousand Oaks, CA (US);
Abstract
A high Q MEMS capacitor that can be continuously tuned with a large tuning ratio or reversibly trimmed using an electrostatic force. The tunable capacitor has a master/slave structure in which a control voltage is applied to the master (control) capacitor to set the capacitance of the slave (signal) capacitor to which an RF signal is applied via a suspended mechanical coupler. The master-slave structure reduces tuning error by reducing the signal capacitor's surface area and increasing its spring constant, and may eliminate the need for discrete blocking inductors by electrically isolating the control and signal capacitors. The trimmable capacitor provides an electrostatic actuator that selectively engages a stopper with teeth on a tunable capacitor structure to fix the trimmed capacitance.