Innovative RF MEMS switches on GaAs

RF-MEMS is an emerging area of MEMS technology that is revolutionizing RF- and microwave applications. RF-MEMS devices have a broad range of applications in military and commercial wireless communication, navigation and sensor systems. Agile RF-systems require reconfigurable frontends that can steer the beam over a wide frequency range. Such applications always require some kind of switches. The RF MEMS switch technology presented in this paper has been combined with a standard commercial GaAs MMIC process from the OMMIC foundry. Several switches have been designed and evaluated within the FP7 project MEMS-4-MMIC. Such switches can be used in compact designs of switching matrices, routing networks and/or phase shifters. One application range is electronically steerable antenna arrays that can be used for radar applications, satellite communication and sensory. A 3D FDTD field solver has been used for the electromagnetic design of all switches presented within this article.