Characteristics of low-k RF MEMS capacitive switches on gallium arsenide substrate

This paper details the fabrication and performance of a low-k RF MEMS capacitive switch on gallium arsenide (epsiv r =12.9) substrate. The switch is fabricated using GaAs MMIC compatible MEMS specific surface micromachining techniques. The switch posses a movable metallic bridge which pulls down ont...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sharma, P., Koul, S.K., Murlidharan, R., Mangatayaru, A., Suryanarayanan, P., Chaturvedi, S., Naik, A.
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
Bridge circuits
Dielectric substrates
Fabrication
Gallium arsenide
low spring constant
Micromachining
Micromechanical devices
MMICs
Radiofrequency microelectromechanical systems
RF MEMS capacitive switch
surface micromachining
Switches
Voltage
Online Access:Request full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This paper details the fabrication and performance of a low-k RF MEMS capacitive switch on gallium arsenide (epsiv r =12.9) substrate. The switch is fabricated using GaAs MMIC compatible MEMS specific surface micromachining techniques. The switch posses a movable metallic bridge which pulls down onto a metal/dielectric sandwich to form a capacitive contact. The bridge consists of a proof mass which is supported by meander-type flexures that essentially result in a low effective spring constant of the suspended structure and thus a lower actuation voltage is required to pull the bridge down. The fabricated switch has low insertion loss of 0.5 dB with good isolation of 25.5 dB at 26.5 GHz and the actuation voltage lies in 10-20 V range.
DOI:10.1109/AMTA.2008.4763216