Abstract: A micro electromechanical (MEMS) antenna (36) is positioned on one side of a substrate and is connected to a MEMS switch comprising a capacitor bridge (46) and to a transmission line (42) by means of a thru hole or via (48) which forms an electrically conducting path through the substrate. This arrangement provides a common ground plane for the antenna and switch and shields the switch from the electromagnetic radiation received or transmitted from the antenna. The switch may comprise a topmost metal layer which extends across a bridge structure formed by a polymer layer (19). The polymer layer comprises poly-monochloro-para-xylene (parylene-C). Homogeneous or heterogeneous antenna array structures are implemented. The antenna arrays may include one or more different type of antennas with for example different shapes, rotations and reflections.

Abstract: A capacitive switch for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) comprises a topmost metal plate which extends across a bridge structure formed by a polymer layer. The polymer layer comprises poly-monochoro-para-xylene (parylene-C). The space below the polymer layer contains the second plate on a substrate. Using parylene as the primary bridge material makes the bridge of the MEMS device very flexible and requires a relatively low actuation voltage to pull the bridge down and lower power is required to control the MEMS device.

Abstract: A micro electromechanical (MEMS) antenna (36) is positioned on one side of a substrate and is connected to a MEMS switch comprising a capacitor bridge (46) and to a transmission line (42) by means of a thru hole or via (48) which forms an electrically conducting path through the substrate. This arrangement provides a common ground plane for the antenna and switch and shields the switch from the electromagnetic radiation received or transmitted from the antenna. The switch may comprise a topmost metal layer which extends across a bridge structure formed by a polymer layer (19). The polymer layer comprises poly-monochloro-para-xylene (parylene-C). Homogeneous or heterogeneous antenna array structures are implemented. The antenna arrays may include one or more different type of antennas with for example different shapes, rotations and reflections.

Abstract: A reconfigurable processor architecture, compiler and method of program instruction execution provides reduced cost, short design time, low power consumption and high performance. The processor executes program instructions having datapaths of both dependent and independent program instructions. Simultaneous multithreading is also Interconnects Network supported. The processor has a reconfigurable core (1) with an interconnection network (4) and a heterogeneous array of instruction cells (2) each connected to the interconnection network (4). A decoding module (11) receives configuration instruction (10), each instruction encoding the mapping of one of the datapaths to a circuit of the instruction cells (2). The decoding module (11) decodes each configuration instruction (10) and configures the interconnection network (4) and instruction cells in order to map the datapath to the circuit of the instruction cells and execute the program instructions.

Abstract: A capacitive switch for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) comprises a topmost metal plate which extends across a bridge structure formed by a polymer layer. The polymer layer comprises poly-monochoro-para-xylene (parylene-C). The space below the polymer layer contains the second plate on a substrate. Using parylene as the primary bridge material makes the bridge of the MEMS device very flexible and requires a relatively low actuation voltage to pull the bridge down and lower power is required to control the MEMS device.

Abstract: A method for designing a computational device or circuit having one or more desired characteristics, preferably input and/or output characteristics. The method involves using an inner, iterative search that is preferably used within one or more genetic operators. As a first step, one of a population of computational circuits or devices is selected. Once this is done a point in the selected circuit or device is chosen and characterised in terms of the circuit inputs and/or outputs. A parameter or characteristic associated with the selected point is then modified and the point is re-characterised. This is repeated to provide characterisations for a plurality of modified versions of the circuit. Then, the circuit that has characteristics closest to the desired characteristics is identified and added to the population of circuits, and the inner search loop is repeated for another one of the population.