High-performance integrated RF-MEMS: Part 1 - The process

RF MEMS have been pursued for more than a decade as a solution to high-performance on-chip fixed, tunable and switchable passives. However, the implementation of RF-MEMS into products has remained elusive. This is partly due to special-purpose processes that only supported a narrow application field, in many cases optimized for single devices. This prevented aggregation of volumes to justify the manufacturing infrastructure of even a single production foundry. This paper presents a single process that has been implemented in multiple foundries and highlights a wide range of high-performance devices including switches, inductors, varactors, and phase-shifters that have been or are being built using this process. This process thus forms the foundation for a wide range of reconfigurable and tunable RF passive circuits.