Skin effect aggregated heating in RF MEMS suspended structures

This paper presents experimental data together with 2 modeling approaches to demonstrate the increased heating of MEMS suspended structures at radio frequencies due to skin effects. Distinguishable average temperature rises are measured at 2, 13.5, and 18 GHz in a 616 μm × 20 μm × 2.7 μm suspended coplanar waveguide using 4-wire measurement configuration. Our measurements compare well with: (1) previous electromagnetic simulations and (2) a newly introduced analytical thermal model incorporating only skin effects. Buckling and plastic yielding have been observed during and after measurement. This study provides a simple and quantitative approach for the design of suspended structures such as low loss transmission lines, filters and switches with high power handling capability.