abstract: Programmable metallization cell (PMC) technology employs the mechanisms of metal ion transport in solid electrolytes (SE) and electrochemical redox reactions in order to form metallic electrodeposits. When a positive bias is applied to an anode opposite to a cathode, atoms at the anode are oxidized to ions and dissolve into the SE. Under the influence of the electric field, the ions move to the cathode and become reduced to form the electrodeposits. These electrodeposits are filamentary in nature and persistent, and since they are metallic can alter the physical characteristics of the material on which they are formed. PMCs can be used as next generation memories, radio frequency (RF) switches and physical unclonable functions (PUFs). The morphology of the filaments is impacted by the biasing conditions. Under a relatively high applied electric field, they form as dendritic elements with a low fractal dimension (FD), whereas a low electric field leads to high FD features. Ion depletion effects in the SE due to low ion diffusivity/mobility also influences the morphology by limiting the ion supply into the growing electrodeposit. Ion transport in SE is due to hopping transitions driven by drift and diffusion force. A physical model of ion hopping with Brownian motion has been proposed, in which the ion transitions are random when time window is larger than characteristic time. The random growth process of filaments in PMC adds entropy to the electrodeposition, which leads to random features in the dendritic patterns. Such patterns has extremely high information capacity due to the fractal nature of the electrodeposits. In this project, lateral-growth PMCs were fabricated, whose LRS resistance is less than 10Ω, which can be used as RF switches. Also, an array of radial-growth PMCs was fabricated, on which multiple dendrites, all with different shapes, could be grown simultaneously. Those patterns can be used as secure keys in PUFs and authentication can be performed by optical scanning. A kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) model is developed to simulate the ion transportation in SE under electric field. The simulation results matched experimental data well that validated the ion hopping model. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Electrical Engineering 2015

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An RF switch in substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) technology for X-band is designed and demonstrated. Design is based on embedding shunt pin diodes of the switch in an evanescent mode waveguide filter. At reverse bias, pin diodes formed a part of filter&#039 / s capacitances. Thus switch also functions as a filter when it is in &ldquo / on&rdquo / state. At forward bias of diodes, capacitances of the filter are short circuited to obtain a good isolation. The same circuit structure is used to design a tunable filter and an RF power limiter which also functions as a filter. Several RF functions usually used in RF frontends (power limiting, filtering, switching) are combined in a single circuit which helps miniaturization of the frontend. The circuit can be produced with standard PCB and chip&amp / wire technology. The circuits developed have comparable performances with microstrip counterparts and they are advantageous to use in microwave systems using SIW as the basic transmission medium and need filtering functionality.

With the explosive growth of the wireless market, the demand for low-cost and highly-integrated radio frequency (RF) transceiver has been increased. Keeping up with this trend, complimentary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) has been spotlighted by virtue of its superior characteristics. However, there are challenges in achieving this goal, especially designing the transmitter portion. The objective of this research is to demonstrate the feasibility of fully integrated CMOS transmitter module which includes power amplifier (PA) and transmit/receive (T/R) switch by compensating for the intrinsic drawbacks of CMOS technology. As an effort to overcome the challenges, the high-power handling T/R switches are introduced as the first part of this dissertation. The proposed differential switch topology and feed-forward capacitor helps reducing the voltage stress over the switch devices, enabling a linear power transmission. With the high-power T/R switches, a new transmitter front-end topology - differential PA and T/R switch topology with the multi-section PA output matching network - is also proposed. The multi-stage PA output matching network assists to relieve the voltage stress over the switch device even more, by providing a low switch operating impedance. By analyzing the power performance and efficiency of entire transmitter module, design methodology for the high-power handling and efficient transmitter module is established. Finally, the research in this dissertation provides low-cost, high-power handling, and efficient CMOS RF transmitter module for wireless applications.

The ability to control the path a signal takes through microwave circuitry is crucial when designing RF systems. The component that allows for the control of the signal path is called a switch, and it is the microwave component that this thesis will focus on. Switches are widely used in the growing defense and space industries, both of which have strict requirements on their systems. This thesis aims to investigate four switch topologies and compare them to establish which topology is most suitable in high-performance systems where high isolation and wide bandwidths are essential parameters. The different topologies were simulated using Cadence AWR Microwave Studio to evaluate the parameters of interest. Built-in models for PIN diodes were employed to capture the nonlinear nature of the diodes and quantify the linearity of the switches. Measurements of PIN diodes using a spectrum analyzer and a vector network analyzer were used to confirm that the models of the PIN diode resembled the actual characteristics of PIN diodes. Out of the four topologies investigated, the series, shunt, series-shunt and double shunt, it was concluded that the series-shunt topology was most suitable for wideband multiple-throw switches. The double shunt topology was more suitable for SPST switches and narrowband SPDT switches. From this thesis, it will be possible to conclude which topology is most suitable for a particular need and what key design parameters will impact the switch’s performance. / Förmågan att styra vägen en signal tar genom mikrovågskretsar är en avgörande förmåga i konstruktionen av de flesta RF-system. Komponenten som tillåter styrning av signalvägen kallas en omkopplare och är den mikrovågskomponent som detta examensarbete kommer att fokusera på. RFomkopplare kan realiseras på många olika sätt och kan integreras i flera typer av vågledande strukturer såsom mikrostrips, striplines och vågledare. Omkopplingselementen kan realiseras på många sätt, med användning av transistorer och dioder är de mest etablerade sätten. Sådana omkopplare används i stor utsträckning inom försvars- och rymdindustrin som båda har strikta krav på dess komponenter. Avhandlingen syftar därför till att undersöka ett antal switchtopologier och jämföra dessa för att fastställa vilken topologi som är mest lämplig i högpresterande system där hög isolering och breda bandbredder är viktiga parametrar. De olika topologierna simulerades med hjälp av Cadence AWR Microwave Studio för att utvärdera parametrarna av intresse. Den inbyggda modellen för PIN-dioder användes också för att fånga diodernas olinjära natur för att kvantifiera omkopplarnas linjäritet. Mätningar av PIN-dioder med användning av en spektrumanalysator och en Nätverksanalysator gjordes för att bekräfta att modellerna av PIN-dioderna efterliknade PIN-diodernas faktiska beteende. Det fastslogs att series-shunt-topologin var mest lämpad för bredbandsomkopplare med flera utgångar. Dubbel-shunt-topologin var mer lämplig i SPSTomkopplare och i smalbandiga SPDT-omkopplare. Från detta examensarbete kommer det att vara möjligt att dra slutsatser kring vilken topologi som är mest lämplig för ett särskilt behov tillsammans med vilka designparametrar som kommer att påverka omkopplarens prestanda.

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