Novel four-port RF phase change switches based on GeTe thin film

Abstract

An indirect-heated phase-change switch (PCS) using germanium telluride (GeTe) has been fabricated using thermal actuation driven by thin film heater on the model. Switches require a low ON-state resistance and a high OFF-state resistance with OFF/ON resistance ratio of 105. The finite element analysis simulation is applied to simulate the temperature of individual node GeTe with different microwave heating pulses. Finally, in order to reduce the phase-change time and increase the switching speed of indirectly heated switching structures, a new four-port indirectly heated phase change switching structure is proposed. In this paper, the heat dissipation of the switch is increased by etching deep grooves on the back of the switch. This structure obviously reduces the phase change time compared to conventional indirectly heated phase change switches the time between ON-state and OFF-state is reduced by more than 19% and the total process is reduced by more than 47%. The GeTe PCSs with etched grooves not only significantly increases the switching speed, but also reduces the risk of recrystallization of the phase change material.