Small, low-ohmic RF MEMS switches with thin-film package

Author

Wunnicke, O. ; Kwinten, H. ; van Leuken-Peters, L. ; in ´t Zandt, M. ; Reimann, K. ; Aravindh, V. ; Suy, H.M.R. ; Goossens, M.J. ; Wolters, R.A.M. ; Besling, W.F.A. ; van Beek, J.T.M. ; Steeneken, P.G.

Author_Institution

NXP-TSMC Res. Center, NXP Semicond., Eindhoven, Netherlands

fYear

2011

fDate

23-27 Jan. 2011

Firstpage

793

Lastpage

796

Abstract

We report on small, low-ohmic RF MEMS switches with a circular membrane actuator design. A low temperature process is used to manufacture both the MEMS switch as well as its hermetic, thin-film package resulting in a very small footprint device. The hermetic seal of the package significantly increases the switch lifetime and reliability. The switches demonstrate good RF performance and high switching speeds. A comparison with other MEMS switches reveals that these MEMS switches possess a low on-resistance while occupying only a very small area on the wafer.

Keywords

hermetic seals; microswitches; semiconductor device packaging; semiconductor device reliability; semiconductor thin films; RF performance; circular membrane actuator design; hermetic seal; hermetic thin-film package; high switching speed; low temperature process; low-ohmic RF MEMS switch; switch lifetime; switch reliability; Biomembranes; Contacts; Electrodes; Microswitches; Radio frequency; Reliability;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS), 2011 IEEE 24th International Conference on

Conference_Location

Cancun

ISSN

1084-6999

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-9632-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMSYS.2011.5734544

Filename

5734544