Radio Frequency-micro Electromechanical System Switch with High Speed and Low Actuated Voltage

Abstract

This paper presents a novel RF MEMS (Micro Electromechanical System) fixed-fixed switch for very fast switching. Using the obtained equations, the switching time depends on the stiffness and effective mass of the switch beam so that the switching time will be decreased by higher stiffness (spring constant) and lower effective mass. In new design, the suspension bridge is a three-layer beam so that the middle layer is aluminum and outer layers are alumina. The reduced dimensions and three layers of beam cause to increase stiffness and reduce the mass of the beam. This led to increase the resonance frequency and as result, the switching time is reduced. The results show that, the switching time is 127 ns for the applied voltage of 27v and also the pull-in voltage is 18V. The return loss is 12 dB at frequency of 60 GHz that is desirable and the achieved results is better than the previous works. Thus, this switch is suitable for high frequency applications.