Abstract
Due to their high isolation, low insertion loss, high linearity, and low power consumption, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) switches have drawn much attention from researchers in recent years. In this paper, we introduce the research status of MEMS switches in different bands and several reliability issues, such as dielectric charging, contact failure, and temperature instability. In this paper, some of the following methods to improve the performance of MEMS switches in high frequency are summarized: (1) utilizing combinations of several switches in series; (2) covering a float metal layer on the dielectric layer; (3) using dielectric layer materials with high dielectric constants and conductor materials with low resistance; (4) developing MEMS switches using T-match and π-match; (5) designing MEMS switches based on bipolar complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (BiCMOS) technology and reconfigurable MEMS’ surfaces; (6) employing thermal compensation structures, circularly symmetric structures, thermal buckle-beam actuators, molybdenum membrane, and thin-film packaging; (7) selecting Ultra-NanoCrystalline diamond or aluminum nitride dielectric materials and applying a bipolar driving voltage, stoppers, and a double-dielectric-layer structure; and (8) adopting gold alloying with carbon nanotubes (CNTs), hermetic and reliable packaging, and mN-level contact.
Highlights
With the development of communication technology, electronic products are gradually becoming more and more miniaturized and multifunctional
The parasitic effect of the switch is significantly enhanced as the frequency increases, resulting in a drastic deterioration of the isolation performance
The capacitive type microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) switch designed by Tsaur et al [44] realized a low insertion loss of 2 dB at 67 GHz and high isolation of 25 dB at 67 GHz based on a PZT/HfO2 multilayered dielectric and π-match
Summary
With the development of communication technology, electronic products are gradually becoming more and more miniaturized and multifunctional. This paper summarizes the research status of MEMS switches in the centimeter, millimeter, and submillimeter bands and some reliability issues, such as dielectric charging, contact failure, and temperature instability. The performance parameters in different bands and reliability issues are analyzed to provide research ideas for implementing high-performance MEMS switches in high-frequency fields. This remainder of this paper has four parts: Section 1 mainly introduces the application background of MEMS switches and the necessity of MEMS switch research in different frequencies.
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