Wideband CMOS Compatible Capacitive MEMS Switch for RF Applications

Author

Zhang, Shumin ; Su, Wansheng ; Zaghloul, Mona ; Thibeault, Brian

Author_Institution

Hughes Network Syst., LLC, Germantown, MD

Volume

18

Issue

9

fYear

2008

Firstpage

599

Lastpage

601

Abstract

This letter presents the design, fabrication, and characterization of a novel capacitive radio frequency (RF) microelectromechanical system (MEMS) switch. The switch uses thermal actuation and a finger structure for capacitive coupling. The switch is CMOS process-compatible and uses a two step maskless reactive ion etching (RIE) micromachining technique for post-processing. The measurement results show that the insertion loss is 1.6 dB and isolation is 33 dB at 5.4 GHz. The applications of this switch are ISM/WLAN CMOS front-end reconfigurable RF circuits such as voltage controlled oscillators, filters, and matching networks.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; micromachining; microswitches; radiofrequency integrated circuits; sputter etching; voltage-controlled oscillators; wireless LAN; ISM/WLAN CMOS front-end; capacitive MEMS switch; capacitive coupling; finger structure; frequency 5.4 GHz; maskless reactive ion etching; microelectromechanical system; micromachining; radiofrequency applications; reconfigurable radiofrequency circuits; thermal actuation; voltage controlled oscillators; wideband CMOS compatible; CMOS process; Etching; Fabrication; Fingers; Microelectromechanical systems; Micromechanical devices; Microswitches; Radio frequency; Switches; Wideband; CMOS; Capacitive shunt switch; micorelectromechanical system (MEMS) switch; radio frequency (RF)-MEMS;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1531-1309

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LMWC.2008.2002455

Filename

4624619