Pulse RF operation of MEMS capacitive switches

Author

Palego, Cristiano ; Deng, Jie ; Halder, Subrata ; Peng, Zhen ; Hwang, James C M ; Forehand, David I. ; Goldsmith, Charles L.

Author_Institution

ECE, Lehigh Univ., Bethlehem, PA, USA

fYear

2009

fDate

28-29 Sept. 2009

Firstpage

395

Lastpage

398

Abstract

Shifts in the pull-in voltage of electrostatically actuated MEMS capacitive switches were characterized under pulse RF excitation, which allowed the electrical and thermal effects of the RF excitation to be separated. The resulted multiphysics model accurately predicted the pull-in voltage shift under different pulse powers and duty cycles. By comparing the power capacity of switches made of aluminum or molybdenum, a new figure of merit is proposed for selecting the optimum material for the fabrication of high-power MEMS capacitive switches.

Keywords

aluminium; electrostatic actuators; microswitches; microwave switches; molybdenum; Al; Mo; aluminum; electrical effects; electrostatically actuated MEMS capacitive switches; high-power MEMS capacitive switch fabrication; molybdenum; pull-in voltage shifts; pulse RF excitation; pulse RF operation; thermal effects; Communication switching; Electromagnetic heating; Micromechanical devices; Pulse circuits; Radio frequency; Switches; Thermal conductivity; Thermal expansion; Thermal factors; Voltage; microelectromechanical devices; microwave devices; microwave switches; pulse measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Integrated Circuits Conference, 2009. EuMIC 2009. European

Conference_Location

Rome

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-4749-7

Type

conf

Filename

5295907