AN ELECTROTHERMALLY-DRIVEN LOW VOLTAGE MICRO SWITCH FOR HIGH FREQUENCY APPLICATIONS

Abstract

In this paper, a MEMS switch with single layer arms has been designed and demonstrated. The switch has been actuated by combination of electrostatic and thermal actuation methods. Most of common thermal switches have been fabricated on several layers. But this will be result in difficult and high cost fabrication processes. Avoiding these problems, the shunt MEMS switch has been proposed. It can greatly simplify the fabrication process and reduce cost. High frequency simulation results show that the insertion loss is lower than 0.5 dB and the isolation is -40 dB at 2 GHz. By the combination actuated way, the electrostatic actuation voltage is reduced to 5v. So the switch can be integrated with standard CMOS circuits without any up-converters. The switching time is about 70µs and the maximal temperature of thermal actuator is lower than 150o C which cannot cause any longtime damage.