Nafion-Based Fully Passive Solid-State Conductive Bridging RF Switch

Abstract

This letter reports the design and development of a conductive bridging RF switch with simple fabrication steps without the use of any clean room technologies. The reported device is a fully passive shunt mode RF switch on a co-planar waveguide transmission line, which operates in the dc-3GHz range. This particular topology is chosen in contemplation to limitations imposed by the chosen realization process. The device is based on a metal-insulator (electrolyte)-metal structure, with copper- Nafion-aluminum switching layers. S 21 switching between -1 dB (RF-ON) and -16 dB (RF-OFF) is demonstrated till 3 GHz by the device. Dc pulses in the range between 18 V/0.5 mA and -20 V/0.1 A are used, respectively, to SET and RESET the switch, and the instantaneous power consumed for SET and RESET is, respectively, 1.7 μW and 3 mW. The SET and RESET state dc resistances of the switch are observed as 2 Ω and 2 MΩ subsequently. The model is initially simulated using commercial finite element method-based electromagnetic modeling tool and validated experimentally.