Low-cost low actuation voltage copper RF MEMS switches

Author

Balaraman, D. ; Bhattacharya, S.K. ; Ayazi, F. ; Papapolymerou, J.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta, GA, USA

Volume

2

fYear

2002

fDate

2-7 June 2002

Firstpage

1225

Abstract

This paper presents the design, fabrication and testing of capacitive copper RF MEMS switches with various hinge geometries, fabricated on high-resistivity silicon substrates. The switches were fabricated using a simple low-cost four-mask process and 0.6-1.0 /spl mu/m thick membranes were made out of sputtered copper. The capacitive airgap in between the membrane and the signal line is 1.5-2.0 /spl mu/m. The lowest actuation voltage measured on the fabricated switches is 9 V. The measured insertion loss of a fabricated switch and its associated transmission time was 0.9 dB (mainly contributed by the transmission line itself) and the isolation was measured to be 25 dB at 40 GHz.

Keywords

UHF devices; copper; membranes; microactuators; microwave switches; millimetre wave devices; silicon; sputtered coatings; 0.6 to 1 micron; 1.5 to 2 micron; 40 GHz; 9 V; Cu; Cu RF MEMS switches; Si; capacitive MEMS switches; fabrication process; high-resistivity Si substrate; hinge geometries; low actuation voltage; low-cost four-mask process; micromechanical shunt switch; sputtered Cu membranes; testing; Biomembranes; Copper; Fabrication; Loss measurement; Low voltage; Radiofrequency microelectromechanical systems; Switches; Testing; Time measurement; Transmission line measurements;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest, 2002 IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Seattle, WA, USA

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7239-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2002.1011879

Filename

1011879