Design, Performance and Qualification of a Commercially Available MEMS Switch

An overview of the design and construction of the TT712 SPDT RF MEMS switch is presented, including a detailed discussion of the proprietary high force disk actuator, unique device on package construction, and in-line hermetic chip scale package. Typical switches have 100 million cycle lifetime, 70 musec switching speed, better than 10 mOmega trace resistance repeatability; 0.1 dB insertion loss, 35 dB return loss, and 30 dB isolation (all at 1 GHz) and can switch up to 30 W of RF power. A proprietary RF MEMS qualification methodology adapted from semiconductor industry best practices is also presented. Details of the qualification methodology and representative data are included, demonstrating the first successful commercial qualification of an RF MEMS switch