ELECTROTHERMALLY-ACTUATED RFMEMS SUSPENDED PARALLEL SWITCH

摘要

This article presents an electrothermally-actuated lateral resistive-contact RF-MEMS parallel switch for application to low GHz wireless communication bands. The device is driven by a metal electrothermal actuator, which achieves large displacements and contact forces at much lower temperatures than conventional polysilicon electrothermal actuators. It was manufactured on a standard low-resistivity substrate and its RF performance was improved by suspending the structures 25 μm from the substrate. Measured (at 1 GHz) insertion loss is -0.11 dB, return loss -41 dB, and isolation -22 dB.