Experimental characterization and modeling of the bending strain effect on flexible microwave diodes and switches on plastic substrate

In this letter, comprehensive experimental characterization and modeling of the bending strain effect on flexible microwave diodes and switches are conducted. The flexible microwave devices/circuits indicate different performance dependence with bending strains under different bias conditions. It is observed that individual diodes and switch circuits have the same dominant factors (series resistance and inductance) for radio frequency properties under bending conditions. More importantly, variations of the dominant factors are almost only dependent on the strains and regardless of diode areas or connection topology. The study provides guidelines for designing and using high-speed diodes/switches for flexible monolithic microwave integrated circuits.