A DC-contact MEMS shunt switch

Abstract

This paper presents the design, fabrication, and performance of a metal-to-metal contact micro-electro-mechanical (MEMS) shunt switch. The switch is composed of a fixed-fixed metal beam with two pull-down electrodes and a central DC-contact area. The switch is placed in an in-line configuration in a coplanar waveguide transmission line. This topology results in a compact DC-contact shunt switch and high isolation at 0.1-18 GHz. The isolation at MM-wave frequencies is limited by the inductance to ground and is -20 dB at 18 GHz. The application areas are in wireless communications and high-isolation switching networks for satellite systems.

Keywords

This publication has 9 references indexed in Scilit:

Characteristics of micromachined switches at microwave frequencies
Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,2002
Micromechanical electrostatic K-band switches
Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,2002
Broadband low actuation voltage RF MEM switches
Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,2002
Electroplated rf MEMS capacitive switches
Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,2002
MEMS microswitch arrays for reconfigurable distributed microwave components
Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,2002
All-metal high-isolation series and series/shunt MEMS switches
IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, 2001
Inline capacitive and DC-contact MEMS shunt switches
IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, 2001
A DC-to-40 GHz four-bit RF MEMS true-time delay network
IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, 2001
Performance of low-loss RF MEMS capacitive switches
IEEE Microwave and Guided Wave Letters, 1998

Cited by 41 articles