A tunable band-stop filter using a metamaterial structure and MEMS bridges on a silicon substrate

A band-stop filter using a metamaterial structure (complementary U-shaped split resonator; CUSR) on a silicon substrate with a 13% tuning range is presented for Ka band applications. The metamaterial structure is used as a frequency-selective geometry on a coplanar waveguide (CPW) and tunability is achieved with the help of MEMS bridges. The rejection in the stop band is around 25 dB for the entire tuning range. A low insertion loss of 0.5 dB is obtained in the pass band. A simple electrical model of the proposed device and the design guidelines are presented. The filter is realized by a novel fabrication methodology involving the micromachining of two bonded silicon wafers and initial fabricated results are reported.