Toggle switch: investigations of an RF MEMS switch for power applications

RF MEMS switches have improved electromagnetic properties compared to solid-state switches. Therefore, these devices are a promising alternative. Various designs have been studied, which show lower insertion loss in closed state (0.25 dB at 35 GHz), high isolation in open state (>14 dB at 30 GHz) and allow high power handling (>2.5 W at 5 GHz). Reliability and life-time are critical parameters of these new structures and little data are available today. This authors report on reliability and power handling investigations of the recently developed toggle switch, an ohmic contact switch. More than 2.4×10⁵ switch cycles were successfully performed, the measured switch time was 12 μs and the release time was 25 μs. Contact resistances in the range of 5-16 ohm were measured and a temperature dependency of the pull-in voltage of -0.3 V/deg was observed.