Thermally Actuated Multiport RF MEMS Switches and Their Performance in a Vacuumed Environment

In this paper, unique multiport RF microelectromechanical system switches are proposed as building blocks of redundancy switch matrices. Novel single-pole single-throw (SPST), single-pole double-throw (SPDT), and C-type (transfer) switches are developed, fabricated, and tested. These switches are integrated with thermal actuators that require low actuation voltage and result in high contact force. The RF measurement results reveal an excellent performance with extremely low loss. Up to 20 GHz, the SPST switch has less than 0.3 dB, the SPDT switch has less than 0.5 dB, and the C-type switch has less than 1-dB insertion loss. In addition, the vacuum behavior of these switches is evaluated, which shows a 75% reduced power consumption with an identical RF performance. These switches are excellent candidates for integrating in the form of redundancy switch matrices.