A New Double-Bridge RF MEMS Switch with Low Actuation Voltage and High Isolation

Subject Areas : Majlesi Journal of Telecommunication Devices

Somayye Molaei ¹ , Bahram Azizollah Ganji ²

1 - Electrical & Computer Engineering Department, Babol University of Technology
2 - Electrical & Computer Engineering Department, Babol University of Technology

Received: 2016-02-01 Accepted : 2016-05-28 Published : 2016-10-01

Keywords: en,

Abstract :

This paper presents a new dual beam RF MEMS capacitive shunt switch with low voltage, low loss and high isolation for K-band applications. In this design, we have proposed the step structure to reduce the air gap between the bridge and the signal line, thus the actuation voltage is reduced to 2.9V. Furthermore, to reach more isolation, we used Aluminum Nitride (AlN) as a dielectric layer instead of conventional dielectric materials such as  and which has more  led to increase the down-state capacitance and increase the isolation of switch. The results show that the switch in up position involve  less than -10 dB from 1 to 40 GHZ and  more than -0.72 dB from 1 to 22 GHZ. In down state, switch has an excellent isolation at the frequency range of K-band. The maximum isolation of -58 dB is obtained at resonance frequency of 27 GHZ. Furthermore, we used the -match circuit to improve the reflection and isolation of switch. In this case, the double-bridge switch has the return loss of around -12 dB at the range of 1-31 GHZ. The insertion loss of switch is less than -0.8 dB at the range of 1-27 GHZ. The isolation around -40 dB is obtained at the range of 15-40 GHZ. The proposed dual beam switch is the wideband and low-loss switch that appropriate for applications of K-band frequencies.

References:

Gabriel M. Rebeiz , “RF MEMS Theory, Design and Technology,” Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN:0-471-20169-3.

G. M. Rebeiz and J. B. Muldavin, “RF MEMS switches and switch circuits”, IEEE Microwave Mag, vol.2, pp.59-71,2001.

Bachman, M. ,Z.Yang, W.Minfeng and G.Li, 2012,” High-power Magnetically Actuated Microswitches Fabricated in Laminates”.vol.33.Electron Device Letters,IEEE)p.1309-1311.

He,X. , Z.Lv, B.Liu and Z.Li.”.Electrothermally actuated RF MEMS capacitive switch with atomic layer deposited(ALD) dielectrics”. (Solid-state Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Conference (RANDUCERS), 2011 16th International) IEEE. Pp.2470-2473.

Guerre, R. , U. Drechsler, D. Bhattacharyya, P. Rantakari, R. Stutz, R. V.Wright, Z. D. Milosavljevic, T. Vaha-Heikkila, P. B. Kirby and M. Despont, 2010,” Wafer-level transfer technologies for PZT-based RF MEMS switches”. 19.(Journal of microelectromechanical systems) p.548-560.

Cho, I. J. and E. Yoon, 2010, “Design and fabrication of a single membrane push-pull SPDT RF MEMS switch operated by electromagnetic actuation and electrostatic hold”. 20. (Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering) p.035028.

Majumder, S. ;Lampen, J. ; Morrison, R. ; Maciel, J. Apackaged,” high-lifetime ohmic MEMS RF switch”. IEEE MTT-S Int. Microwave Symp. Dig.2003, 3, pp.1935-1938.

J. Lee, W. S. Yang, S. Kang, C. A. Choi, “Design and parameter-extraction based small-singal modeling of a novel center-anchor MEMS series switch. In proceedings of the 〖34〗^th European Microwave Conference. Amsterdam, The Netherlands, October 2004, pp. 1433-1436.

K. Topalli, M. Unlu, H. I. Atasoy, S. Demir, O. A. Civi and T. Akin, “Empirical formulation of bridge inductance in inductively tuned RF MEMS shunt switches,” progress in Electromagnetic Research, PIER 97, PP. 343-356, 2009.

Y. Mafinejad, M. Zarghami, A. Z. Kouzani, “ Design and simulation of high isolation RF MEMS shunt capacitor switch for C-K band,” Electrical Engineering (ICEE),2013 21st Iranian cofference, Mashhad, pp. 1-5.

T. Singh, N. Khaira, J. Sengar, “ A novel capacitive RF MEMS switch design for low voltage application,” Computing, Communications and Networking Technologies (ICCCNT), 2013 Fourth International Conference, Tiruchengode, pp. 1-6.

S. Shekhar, K. J. Vinoy, G. K. Ananthasuresh, “ Design, fabrication and characterization of capacitive RF MEMS switches with low pull-in voltage,” Microwave and RF Conference (IMaRC), 2014 IEEE International, pp. 182-185.

A. Persano, A. Cola, G. Angelis, A. Taurino, P. Siciliano, and F. Quaranta, “Capacitive RF MEMS switches with Tantalum based materials,” Journal of MicroelectromechanicalSystems,vol. 20, no.2, April 2011.pp.365-370.