Design and Analysis of RF MEMS Cantilever Switches for Parameter Enhancement

Abstract

This paper investigates some of the disadvantages of Radio Frequency Micro Electro Mechanical System (RF MEMS) switches, such as high actuation voltage and high switching time. RF MEMS switches are among the most widely used technologies since the past two decades owing to their abundant advantages such as low insertion loss, high isolation loss, low power consumption, and very high Q. In this paper, we focus on reducing the high actuation voltage and high switching time; a novel design of an RF MEMS metal contact switch was proposed and designed using the software Intellisuite 8.7v, and simulations were performed by finite element modeling. Analysis was carried out by the electrostatic actuation method. The actuation voltage depends on the spring constant, area of the actuation electrode, and air gap. From the simulation, we obtained a very low actuation voltage (1.2 V) and low switching time (approximately 7.98 µs).