This letter reports a new RF MEMS power sensor based on double-deck thermocouples with high sensitivity and a large dynamic range. In order to improve RF sensing capability and sensitivity, the double-deck thermocouples and a MEMS substrate membrane are carefully designed. The proposed RF MEMS power sensor is fabricated by GaAs monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) process coupled with MEMS technology. Experimental result shows that the output thermovoltage of the device has inherent RF–dc linearity with the power from 1 to 500 mW. And the measured return loss is less than −28.6 dB at 1–20 GHz, which exhibits excellent matching characteristics. Moreover, at 8, 10, and 12 GHz, the measured sensitivities are 133.2, 124.3, and $116.8~\mu \text{V}$ /mW, respectively. Compared with a traditional thermoelectric power sensor, the sensitivity and the dynamic range of the proposed RF MEMS power sensor are increased by approximately 61% and 2.5 times, respectively. The research work can be considered as an incremental improvement of the state of the art (higher power sensing capability and sensitivity) as RF power sensing using double-deck thermocouples.

中文翻译：

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基于双层热电偶的高灵敏度大动态范围新型射频MEMS功率传感器

这封信报告了一种基于双层热电偶的新型 RF MEMS 功率传感器，具有高灵敏度和大动态范围。为了提高射频传感能力和灵敏度，双层热电偶和 MEMS 基板薄膜经过精心设计。所提出的 RF MEMS 功率传感器是由 GaAs 单片微波集成电路 (MMIC) 工艺结合 MEMS 技术制造的。实验结果表明，该器件的输出热电压具有固有的 RF-dc 线性，功率范围为 1 至 500 mW。并且在 1-20 GHz 下测得的回波损耗小于 -28.6 dB，具有出色的匹配特性。此外，在 8、10 和 12 GHz 下，测得的灵敏度分别为 133.2、124.3 和 $116.8~\mu\text{V}$ /mW，分别。与传统的热电功率传感器相比，所提出的 RF MEMS 功率传感器的灵敏度和动态范围分别提高了约 61% 和 2.5 倍。这项研究工作可以被视为对使用双层热电偶的 RF 功率传感的现有技术（更高的功率传感能力和灵敏度）的渐进式改进。