Lateral Contact Three-State RF MEMS Switch for Ground Wireless Communication by Actuating Rhombic Structures

A laterally actuated three-state RF microelectromechanical systems switch for ground wireless communication applications is proposed, fabricated, and tested. By electrostatically actuating a rhombic beam, the proposed switch can not only realize the off-state to on -state shifting but also provide an additional deep off state. The switch was fabricated by silicon on glass (SOG) bulk silicon micromachining. The 2- μm-thick gold electroplating layers were introduced in the SOG process to enhance the performance of lateral contacts. The off-state and deep- off-state isolations of the prototype switch were measured to be -67.6 dB and - 72.2 dB at 0.9 GHz and -48.3 dB and -53.0 dB at 6 GHz, respectively. The measured insertion loss is -0.13 dB at 0.9 GHz and -0.38 dB at 6 GHz, respectively. The measured actuation voltage is 78 V. The switching-on and switching-off response times are 72 and 64 μs, respectively.