Design, Simulation and Analysis of Perforated RF MEMS Capacitive Shunt Switch

Abstract

Objective: This paper presents the design and simulation of double bridge-type capacitive RF MEMS switch by using FEM Tool. Methods: It is mainly concentrated on a low pull-in voltage, capacitance, and RF analysis. The beam is considered as a gold metal having the length of 595 μm along with the 1μm thickness and the dielectric is taken as Silicon nitride (Si3N4) by using Ashby’s method. The non-uniform meandering technique and perforations are used to reduce the pull-in voltage, by changing different beam thickness, air gap and materials. Results: The pull-in voltage of the proposed RF MEMS switch is 1.2 V. The scattering parameters are simulated by using Ansoft HFSS software. The simulation results of S-parameters such as return loss, insertion losses are, -19.27 dB and -0.20dB. The switch having good isolation is -63.94 dB at 8 GHz. Conclusion: The overall switch is designed with different beam thickness, various gap, and different materials to identify the best performance of the switch for low-frequency applications i.e X-bands.