Effect of surface conduction on dielectric charging in RF MEMS capacitive switches

Peng, Zhen; Molinero, David; Palego, Cristiano; Hwang, J.C.M.; Moody, Cody; Malczewski, A.; Pillans, B.

doi:10.1109/mwsym.2010.5515661

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The simulated results expose that the RF-MEMS switch has an insertion loss of -1.7532dB and isolation of -18.394dB at 20GHz; and at the frequency of 60GHz, the insertion loss is -7.2499dB and isolation is -27.293dB. These two frequency ranges can be used to operate Military radar RF applications and wireless common link, respectively [9].…”

Section: Fem Simulationmentioning

confidence: 94%

Novel low-voltage RF-MEMS switch: Design and simulation

Soin

Nordin

2014

2014 IEEE International Conference on Semiconductor Electronics (ICSE2014)

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This paper presents a novel design of a low-voltage radio frequency (RF) micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) switch with its electro-mechanical and microwave characteristics' simulation, as well as its virtual fabrication process. The RF-MEMS switch employs a shunt capacitive structure. There are eight beams supporting a rectangular membrane to suspend over a coplanar waveguide (CPW) transmission line. The outer four crab-leg beams are used to bypass the signal line to the ground by the coupling capacitance and via when switch is actuated; and the inner four serpentine beams are used to supply the DC actuation voltage to the membrane. The developed RF-MEMS switch has a very low pull-in voltage of 3.53V; and the maximum von Mises stress under actuated condition is 13.1808MPa. The capacitance ratio of the switch is 218.5, with switch-on capacitance of 68fF. The switch's microwave characteristics are obtained by AWR Design Environment 10 ® simulation; its insertion loss and isolation is -1.7532dB and -18.394dB respectively at 20GHz; and at frequency of 60GHz, the insertion loss is -7.2499dB and isolation is -27.293dB. A simple low-cost three-mask process with photoresist (PR-S1800) as sacrifice layer to release the membrane is proposed in this design; and a virtual fabricated device is simulated using IntelliFab v8.7 ® software.

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Section: Fem Simulationmentioning

confidence: 94%

Novel low-voltage RF-MEMS switch: Design and simulation

Soin

Nordin

2014

2014 IEEE International Conference on Semiconductor Electronics (ICSE2014)

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“…Meanwhile, the membrane is effectively fixed at the asperities and the spring constant is effectively that of each section between the asperities. Since the spring constant k ~ 1/ 3 , the asperity height Δg ~ 0.1 µm , and the asperity spacing  ~ 1 µm [6], k', the spring constant after pull in, can be a million times or higher than k. This can, in turn, increase the mechanical resonance frequency beyond the microwave range. The above-described increases in contact capacitance and spring constant can explain the bias and frequency dependence of the linearity of actuated switches as described in the following.…”

Section: Capacitance-voltage Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intermodulation distortion of actuated MEMS capacitive switches

Luo

Ning

Molinero

et al. 2013

81st ARFTG Microwave Measurement Conference

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-For the first time, intermodulation distortion of micro-electromechanical capacitive switches in the actuated state was analyzed both theoretically and experimentally. The distortion, although higher than that of switches in the suspended state, was found to decrease with increasing bias voltage but to depend weakly on modulation frequencies between 55 kHz and 1.1 MHz. This dependence could be explained by the orders-ofmagnitude increase of the spring constant when the switches were actuated.Additionally, the analysis suggested that increasing the spring constant and decreasing the contact roughness could improve the linearity of actuated switches. These results are critical to micro-electromechanical capacitive switches used in tuners, filters, phase shifters, etc. where the linearity of both suspended and actuated states are critical.

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