Nanocrystalline diamond RF MEMS capacitive switch

This paper presents an RF MEMS capacitive switch using nanocrystalline diamond as the dielectric. The switch is electro-statically actuated and small signal measurements are presented in the frequency range of 1-65 GHz. The measured insertion loss in the up-state is ~ 1.1 dB at ~50 GHz with 30 dB isolation in the off-state. Dielectric characterization was performed using the Corona-Kelvin technique and standard I-V testing on comparison nitride and diamond test fixtures. The leaky nature of the diamond films provides a potential solution to reliability issues related to dielectric charging.