The integration of micro-machine fabrication with electronic device fabrication on III-V semiconductor materials

Surface-micromachined RF MEMs switches on GaAs substrates

“…The small size and integratability of a MEMs device are especially suited to high-frequency operation, as the size of relays can be made much smaller than the wavelength of the transmitted signal, with typical device dimensions on the order of several hundred micrometers long and perhaps 100 m wide, fabricated out of films a few micrometers thick. The use of MEMs switches for high-frequency applications was first theorized by Petersen, but relay development and testing w x was pioneered years later by Larson et al 5,6 . As with many early MEMs efforts, actuation Ž voltages are quite high in these devices up to .…”