SIMULATION, FABRICATION AND EARLY CHARACTERIZATION OF A FULLY PASSIVE KU-BAND POWER LIMITER USING RF-MEMS TECHNOLOGIES AND VACUUM MICROELECTRONICS
A. PHOMMAHAXAY, G. LISSORGUES, C. VASSEURE, L. ROUSSEAU, T. BOUROUINA, P. NICOLE

Abstract. The premises leading to the development of a RF power limiter as well as its fabrication using micro-technologies suited to MEMS are presented in this paper. As vacuum components are supposedly able to handle very high frequency signals at high power levels, the proposed device is based on the use of cold cathode field emitters distributed along a coplanar line. Early characterization results at microwave frequencies and at medium power are also be discussed.