Microelectromechanical Systems Switches Research Articles

Novel High Isolation and High Capacitance Ratio RF MEMS Switch: Design, Analysis and Performance Verification

In this paper, a novel high isolation and high-capacitance-ratio radio-frequency micro-electromechanical systems (RF MEMS) switch working at Ka-band is designed, fabricated, measured and analyzed. The proposed RF MEMS switch mainly consists of a MEMS metallic beam, coplanar waveguide (CPW) transmission line, dielectric layer and metal–insulator–metal (MIM) fixed capacitors. The measured results indicate that the insertion loss is better than 0.5 dB at 32 GHz, and the isolation is more than 35 dB at the resonant frequency. From the fitted results, the capacitance ratio is 246.3. Compared with traditional MEMS capacitive switches, this proposed MEMS switch exhibits a high capacitance ratio and provides a wonderful solution for cutting-edge performance in 5G and other high-performance applications.

Intermittent failure mechanism and stabilization of microscale electrical contact

The stability and lifetime of electrical contact pose a major challenge to the performance of microelectro-mechanical systems (MEMS), such as MEMS switches. The microscopic failure mechanism of electrical contact still remains largely unclear. Here conductive atomic force microscopy with hot switching mode was adopted to simulate the asperity-level contact condition in a MEMS switch. Strong variation and fluctuation of current and adhesion force were observed during 10,000 repetitive cycles, exhibiting an “intermittent failure” characteristic. This fluctuation of electrical contact properties was attributed to insulative carbonaceous contaminants repetitively formed and removed at the contact spot, corresponding to degradation and reestablishment of electrical contact. When contaminant film was formed, the contact interface became “metal/carbonaceous adsorbates/metal” instead of direct metal/metal contact, leading to degradation of the electrical contact state. Furthermore, a system of iridium/graphene on ruthenium (Ir/GrRu) was proposed to avoid direct metal/metal contact, which stabilized the current fluctuation and decreased interfacial adhesion significantly. The existence of graphene enabled less adsorption of carbonaceous contaminants in ambient air and enhanced mechanical protection against the repetitive hot switching actions. This work opens an avenue for design and fabrication of microscale electrical contact system, especially by utilizing two-dimensional materials.

A high contact force and high‐isolation radio‐frequency microelectromechanical systems switch for radio‐frequency front‐end applications

AbstractA new structure for low‐loss and high‐isolation radio‐frequency microelectromechanical systems (RF MEMS) switches is presented. The high contact force of the switch leads to very small ranges for contact resistance which is the main constrain of DC‐contact RF MEMS switches. The contact resistance of the switch is 27 mΩ leading to negligible thermal noise which is one of the most important parameters for devices operating at RF front‐ends immediately after the antenna where there is not any active stage. The switch is composed of two actuators: an electrothermal actuator for actuation of the switch from OFF to ON state and an electrostatic actuator to hold the switch at ON state. The insertion loss, return loss, and isolation of the switch for frequencies below 70 GHz are −0.35, −20, and −10 dB, respectively. The contact force and contact resistance of the switch are 0.93 mN and 0.027 Ω, respectively. Electrothermal and electrostatic actuators require 0.91 and 50 actuation voltages, respectively. During the ON‐state, the power consumption of the switch is near zero. The low contact resistance and high‐isolation characteristics of the switch make it very suitable for mobile front‐ends.

Wafer-level hermetically sealed silicon photonic MEMS

The emerging fields of silicon (Si) photonic micro–electromechanical systems (MEMS) and optomechanics enable a wide range of novel high-performance photonic devices with ultra-low power consumption, such as integrated optical MEMS phase shifters, tunable couplers, switches, and optomechanical resonators. In contrast to conventional SiO 2 -clad Si photonics, photonic MEMS and optomechanics have suspended and movable parts that need to be protected from environmental influence and contamination during operation. Wafer-level hermetic sealing can be a cost-efficient solution, but Si photonic MEMS that are hermetically sealed inside cavities with optical and electrical feedthroughs have not been demonstrated to date, to our knowledge. Here, we demonstrate wafer-level vacuum sealing of Si photonic MEMS inside cavities with ultra-thin caps featuring optical and electrical feedthroughs that connect the photonic MEMS on the inside to optical grating couplers and electrical bond pads on the outside. We used Si photonic MEMS devices built on foundry wafers from the iSiPP50G Si photonics platform of IMEC, Belgium. Vacuum confinement inside the sealed cavities was confirmed by an observed increase of the cutoff frequency of the electro-mechanical response of the encapsulated photonic MEMS phase shifters, due to reduction of air damping. The sealing caps are extremely thin, have a small footprint, and are compatible with subsequent flip-chip bonding onto interposers or printed circuit boards. Thus, our approach for sealing of integrated Si photonic MEMS clears a significant hurdle for their application in high-performance Si photonic circuits.

A Packaged THz Shunt RF MEMS Switch With Low Insertion Loss

This paper demonstrates a packaged THz shunt capacitor micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) switch with low insertion loss. In-line shunt switch is used to achieve a low loss in THz band, which is realized by reducing the equivalent parallel inductance of switch. The equivalent circuit of the switch is analyzed systematically, the equivalent resistance is obtained based on the skin effect of high frequency current on the conductor and the current density distribution characteristics of the conductor cross-section. The equivalent capacitance is obtained by using &#x201C;double microstrip&#x201D; characteristic impedance calculation method, and the correction factor (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\Delta$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) is introduced to calculate the equivalent inductance accurately. By optimizing equivalent circuit parameters and switch sizes, the structure of MEMS switch with low loss and high isolation characteristics are achieved. The switch is packaged by rectangular waveguide and achieved a low insertion loss. The comparison between the switch simulation results and the equivalent circuit simulation results verify that the parameter extraction method and circuit analysis are correct. The packaged MEMS switch is measured, and the results are in an acceptable agreement with simulation, the switch is actuated under voltage of &#x007E;30V. The measured result has achieved a low insertion loss with less than &#x003C; 2dB from 220 to 280GHz, and isolation with &#x007E;16 dB from 240GHz to 320GHz in the &#x201C;down&#x201D; state.

Low-Voltage and High-Reliability RF MEMS Switch with Combined Electrothermal and Electrostatic Actuation.

In this paper, we report a novel laterally actuated Radio Frequency (RF) Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) switch, which is based on a combination of electrothermal actuation and electrostatic latching hold. The switch takes the advantages of both actuation mechanisms: large actuation force, low actuation voltage, and high reliability of the thermal actuation for initial movement; and low power consumption of the electrostatic actuation for holding the switch in position in ON state. The switch with an initial switch gap of 7 µm has an electrothermal actuation voltage of 7 V and an electrostatic holding voltage of 21 V. The switch achieves superior RF performances: the measured insertion loss is −0.73 dB at 6 GHz, whereas the isolation is −46 dB at 6 GHz. In addition, the switch shows high reliability and power handling capability: the switch can operate up to 10 million cycles without failure with 1 W power applied to its signal line.

Migration of adhesive material in electrostatically actuated MEMS switch

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) switches are attractive for many applications including radio frequency and microwave systems, logic devices, acceleration sensing and electric protection. However, low reliability limits the introduction of these devices into the commercial use. For two decades of research, many reliability issues have been successfully overcome, but some aspects have received little attention. The paper describes a failure mechanism of electrostatically actuated MEMS switch related to the migration of adhesive material in a dielectric substrate. The phenomenon is demonstrated for the device with Au and Pt electrodes deposited on Cr adhesion layer. After 102–105 working cycles, nanoscale structures consisting of Cr and C appear at the gate. The structures grow and coalesce into micron-sized formations that touch the beam during actuation and cause stiction or short circuiting. The material transfer takes place not only in the gap between the electrodes, but also around the gate and its connecting line, where Cr and C agglomerate into spots and droplets. In addition, the adhesive material migrates under the Au and Pt films, causing the delamination of electrodes from the substrate. A possible explanation of the described effect is the drift of Cr at the SiO2 surface under electric field. Chromium is widely used in microtechnology, but the field-induced migration was not reported previously. To all appearance, it became possible due to the features of the fabrication process. The conditions for the migration must be clarified in order to avoid this reliability issue for MEMS switches of various types and other microfabricated devices.

A novel low-loss four-bit bandpass filter using RF MEMS switches

This paper details the design and simulation of a novel low-loss four-bit reconfigurable bandpass filter that integrates microelectromechanical system (MEMS) switches and comb resonators. A T-shaped reconfigurable resonator is reconfigured in a ‘one resonator, multiple MEMS switches’ configuration and used to gate the load capacitances of comb resonators so that a multiple-frequency filtering function is realized within the 7–16 GHz frequency range. In addition, the insertion loss of the filter is less than 1.99 dB, the out-of-band rejection is more than 18.30 dB, and the group delay is less than 0.25 ns. On the other hand, the size of this novel filter is only 4.4 mm × 2.5 mm × 0.4 mm. Our results indicate that this MEMS reconfigurable filter, which can switch 16 central frequency bands through eight switches, achieves a low insertion loss compared to those of traditional MEMS filters. In addition, the advantages of small size are obtained while achieving high integration.

Utilizing mechanical adhesion force as a high contact force in a MEMS relay

High contact force in a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) relay is known to be the most important factor in achieving low contact resistance. Achieving a high contact force in an electrostatically-actuated MEMS relay usually requires high actuation voltage to exert a high electrostatic force. In this paper, for the first time, we demonstrate the successful use of a mechanical adhesion force as a high contact force for realizing an extremely low contact resistance, even at a low actuation voltage of 3.8 V. To maximize the mechanical adhesion, we designed a suitably-large contact area (100 μm × 100 μm) in the MEMS relay and a detachment spring structure to separate the two electrodes that were in contact with one another by only the mechanical adhesion force, thereby enabling the MEMS switch to perform multiple switching operations. The proposed MEMS relay exhibited an extremely low contact resistance of 4.9 mΩ with only the mechanical adhesion force after we applied an actuation voltage of 3.8 V, and it achieved a retention time of 105 s because of stable mechanical contact. Through this experiment, we verified that the mechanical adhesion force can provide an efficient source for generating high contact force in the MEMS relay.

Autonomous shock sensing using bi-stable triboelectric generators and MEMS electrostatic levitation actuators

This work presents an automatic threshold shock-sensing trigger system that consists of a bi-stable triboelectric transducer and a levitation-based electrostatic mechanism. The bi-stable mechanism is sensitive to mechanical shocks and releases impact energy when the shock is strong enough. A triboelectric generator produces voltage when it receives a mechanical shock. The voltage is proportional to the mechanical shock. When the voltage exceed a certain level, the initially pulled-in microelectromechanical system (MEMS) switch is opened and can disconnect the current in a safety electronic system. The MEMS switch combines two mechanisms of gap-closing (parallel-plate electrodes) with electrostatic levitation (side electrodes) to provide bi-directional motions. The switch is initially closed from a small bias voltage on the gap-closing electrodes. The voltage from the bi-stable generator is connected to the side electrodes. When the shock goes beyond a threshold, the upward force caused by the side electrodes on the switch becomes strong enough to peel off the switch from the closed position. The threshold shock the system can detect is tunable using two control parameters. These two tuning parameters are the axial force on the bi-stable system (clamped-clamped beam) and the bias voltage on the MEMS switch (gap-closing electrodes). The actuation in macro-scale is thus directly connected to a sensor-switch mechanism in micro-scale. This chain makes an autonomous actuation and sensing stand-alone system that has potential application on air bag deployment devices and powerline protection systems. We provide a theoretical frame work of the entire system validated by experimental results.

Concentric Ring Structured Reconfigurable Antenna using MEMS Switches for Wireless Communication Applications

This paper proposes a reconfigurable circular microstrip antenna to serve the wireless communication applications that make use frequency bands such as ISM (Industrial Scientific and Medical), WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service). Reconfigurability is achieved with the help of four MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) switches to change the frequency and radiation properties of the antenna. By choosing either of the two states of each of the MEMS switches, the radius of the circular patch is varied and subsequently the operating resonant frequency. This gives rise to multiple configurations of the antenna to serve for different wireless applications. Defected Ground Structure is employed in this design to lower the resonant frequency and improve the bandwidth. Concentric rings are implemented along with a core circular patch in order to increase the radiating area of the patch in association with the MEMS-based switches to operate in toggle mode of ON and OFF. The concentric rings also helping in obtaining dual-frequency behavior of the antenna and the measured results are showing good agreement with the simulation results.

A novel multifunctional electronic calibration kit integrated by MEMS SPDT switches* *Project supported by the National Defense Technology Industry Strong Foundation Project, China (Grant No. JCKY2018408B006), the Information System New Items Project, China (Grant Nos. 2018XW0026 and 2019XW0010), and the Information System Pre-research Project, China (Grant No. 31513060101).

Design and simulation results of a novel multifunctional electronic calibration kit based on microelectromechanical system (MEMS) single-pole double-throw (SPDT) switches are presented in this paper. The short-open-load-through (SOLT) calibration states can be completed simultaneously by using the MEMS electronic calibration, and the electronic calibrator can be reused 106 times. The simulation results show that this novel electronic calibration can be used in a frequency range of 0.1 GHz–20 GHz, the return loss is less than 0.18 dB and 0.035 dB in short-circuit and open-circuit states, respectively, and the insertion loss in through (thru) state is less than 0.27 dB. On the other hand, the size of this novel calibration kit is only 6 mm × 2.8 mm × 0.8 mm. Our results demonstrate that the calibrator with integrated radio-frequency microelectromechanical system (RF MEMS) switches can not only provide reduced size, loss, and calibration cost compared with traditional calibration kit but also improves the calibration accuracy and efficiency. It has great potential applications in millimeter-wave measurement and testing technologies, such as device testing, vector network analyzers, and RF probe stations.

Manufacturing and Testing of Radio Frequency MEMS Switches Using the Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor Process.

A radio frequency microelectromechanical system switch (MSS) manufactured by the complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process is presented. The MSS is a capacitive shunt type. Structure for the MSS consists of coplanar waveguide (CPW) lines, a membrane, and springs. The membrane locates over the CPW lines. The surface of signal line for the CPW has a silicon dioxide dielectric layer. The fabrication of the MSS contains a CMOS process and a post-process. The MSS has a sacrificial oxide layer after the CMOS process. In the post-processing, a wet etching of buffer oxide etch (BOE) etchant is employed to etch the sacrificial oxide layer, so that the membrane is released. Actuation voltage for the MSS is simulated using the CoventorWare software. The springs have a low stiffness, so that the actuation voltage reduces. The measured results reveal that actuation voltage for the MSS is 10 V. Insertion loss for the MSS is 0.9 dB at 41 GHz and isolation for the MSS is 30 dB at 41 GHz.

Ka‐band distributed microelectromechanical systems transmission line phase shifter using metal air metal switch

AbstractA new approach for designing a two‐state unit cell for a six‐bit distributed coplanar waveguide microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) phase shifter is proposed in this study. The proposed structure includes metal air metal (MAM) capacitors as switches and consists of a unit cell with one MEMS and two MAM switches to produce two phase shifts per unit cell. In the first state, the MAM switches are pulled down and a 5.625° phase shift is achieved, and in the second state, the MEMS switch is actuated to yield a phase shift of 11.25°. The designed structure is modeled using equivalent transmission line circuit model and simulated in the Ka‐band at 34 GHz, employing advanced design system (ADS), ANSOFT HFSS and COMSOL software. Based on the modeling and simulation results, the root‐mean‐square (RMS) phase error is 1.4°, and maximum return loss and minimum insertion loss for all 64 states are better than −10.1 and −1.45 dB, respectively. The main advantages of the designed structure are its small size, low loss, low phase error and a simple phase shift mechanism. A fabrication process is also proposed for the distributed MEMS transmission line (DMTL) phase shifter that shows the feasibility of the proposed design. The proposed structure can be easily scaled to other bands and used in applications with more bits as complex as phased array antennas.

Reducing Dynamism in DRAM With Bistable MEMS Switch as Sleep Transistor

We demonstrate the bistable microelectromechanical system (MEMS) sleep-transistor for CMOS integrated circuits (ICs). The sleep transistor has infinite sleep mode resistance and ~2.5-Ω resistance in active mode. The hold bias in active mode is zero for the bistable MEMS sleep transistor. The proposed bistable MEMS switch is an ideal candidate for gating the power-hungry digital circuits. The dynamic random access memory (DRAM) supply rails gated with bistable MEMS sleep transistors offer ~6 order reduction in refresh rate. This article also reports on the design guidelines for the CMOS compatible fabrication of bistable MEMS sleep transistor. Only ~0.31 pJ of energy is consumed, in toggling between the modes of bistable MEMS sleep transistor. The MEMS gate can drive large area CMOS circuit blocks with fuse current density of ~0.5 mA/μm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . Furthermore, the fabrication of the bistable MEMS sleep transistor is critical in the aspect that its design is a play between restoring and adhesion forces.

An improved design of a seesaw-type MEMS switch for increased contact force

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) switches have a wide range of possible applications due to their promising working characteristics, but commercial success of these devices is limited by low reliability. In contrast with macroscopic electromechanical relays, MEMS switches typically develop a small contact force, which results in unstable and high contact resistance. In this paper we propose the design that ensures several times higher contact force in comparison with previously used structure. Enhancement of the force is achieved without increasing the footprint and operating voltage of the switch. The analytical calculation and finite element simulation of the working characteristics are performed. At the driving voltage of 100 V the modified switch provides the contact force as high as 130 µN, which is an order of magnitude higher than the force developed by the basic device.

Analysis and design of a novel high capacitance ratio and low actuation voltage RF MEMS switch

Analysis and design of a novel high on/off capacitance ratio and low actuation voltage radio frequency microelectro-mechanical systems (RF MEMS) switch. Circuit topology and electrode topology of RF MEMS switches are analyzed. In order to decrease actuation voltage, the switch, using coplanar waveguide transmission line for signal transmission, are designed with special elastic supported structures and actuation electrode are located on both sides of signal line. Metal–insulator–metal (MIM) fixed capacitors are used to change the up/down-state capacitance without adding more loss to the switches. Through the finite element method to determine the spring constant and the necessary applied voltage, the simulation voltage is 4.5 V. The RF performance are obtained by simulating results in the HFSS tool. The switch exhibits the insertion loss of – 0.2 dB, and isolation of – 20 dB within the range of 10–30 GHz, and the isolation extreme value reaches − 41 dB at resonant frequency, the return loss is less than − 12 dB at the resonant frequency. From the fitted results, the on/off capacitance ratio is 162 for the MEMS switch. Compared with traditional MEMS capacitive switches, the proposed MEMS switch exhibit high on/off capacitance ratios and low actuation voltage.

Silicon Photonic Mode-Division Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexers with Mode-Selective Integrated MEMS Switches

Mode-division multiplexing (MDM) is an attractive solution for future on-chip networks to enhance the optical transmission capacity with a single laser source. A mode-division reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) is one of the key components to construct flexible and complex on-chip optical networks for MDM systems. In this paper, we report on a novel scheme of mode-division ROADM with mode-selective silicon photonic MEMS (micro-electromechanical system) switches. With this ROADM device, data carried by any mode-channels can be rerouted or switched at an MDM network node, i.e., any mode could be added/dropped to/from the multimode bus waveguide flexibly and selectively. Particularly, the design and simulation of adiabatic vertical couplers for three quasi-TE modes (TE0, TE1, and TE2 modes) based on effective index analysis and mode overlap calculation method are reported. The calculated insertion losses are less than 0.08 dB, 0.19 dB, and 0.03 dB for the TE0 mode, TE1 mode, and TE2 mode couplers, respectively, over a wavelength range of 75 nm (1515–1590 nm). The crosstalks are below −20 dB over the bandwidth. The proposed device is promising for future on-chip optical networks with flexible functionality and large-scale integration.

Serial and Parallel Active Decoupling Characterization Using RF MEMS Switches for Receiver Endoluminal Coils at 1.5 T

MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical System) switches were assessed and compared to PIN diode in fulfilling the task of active decoupling of Receiver Endoluminal Coils (RECs). Three prototype RECs with the PIN diode in parallel ( ${p}$ PIN), MEMS in parallel ( ${p}$ MEMS) and MEMS in series ( ${s}$ MEMS) with the REC loop were built. Quality factors (Q-values), decoupling efficiency and switching delays were characterized on bench and Signal-to-Noise Ratios (SNRs) established on images at 1.5 T. Q-values were equal to 62.5, 41.2 and 65.1 for ${p}$ PIN, ${s}$ MEMS and ${p}$ MEMS, respectively. In the decoupled state, reflection coefficients S11 and S21 at resonance frequency both indicated proper decoupling. Switching delays were less than $0.7~\mu \text{s}$ and $10~\mu \text{s}$ for ${p}$ PIN and MEMS RECs, respectively. Decoupling/coupling delays of MEMS remained compatible with most Magnetic Resonance (MR) clinical applications. For all prototypes, MR images displayed no signal saturation and similar elliptical image sensitivity patterns. No artifacts due to active decoupling failure were observed. Mean SNR values obtained with ${p}$ MEMS REC were higher than those obtained with ${s}$ MEMS REC but lower than with ${p}$ PIN REC because of the use of additional instrumentation to render the scanner compatible with the MEMS utilization. MEMS in parallel are an interesting alternative to PIN diode for decoupling and could lead to better SNR with a compatible MR system (dedicated control signal). The MEMS in series can be used for both decoupling and reconfiguration of the REC loop geometry for colon wall examination.

AZ4620 Photoresist as an Alternative Sacrificial Layer for Surface Micromachining

The mechanical actuation of suspended structures in microelectromechanical system (MEMS) switches plays an important role in obtaining an open or short circuit in radio-frequency (RF) transmission lines. These micromachined switches have moving parts which are realized by a sacrificial layer. Several sacrificial materials have been utilized in the fabrication of MEMS structures. The traditional method of using metal such as copper or nickel as a sacrificial layer is difficult due to metal etchant compatibility issues. A photoresist is the best choice for this process. Generally, the HiPR photoresist has been found to be suitable␣for the role of sacrificial layer. However, the HiPR is no longer available in the commercial market. As an alternative to the HiPR, the AZ4620 photoresist can be used. In this paper, a unit process optimization technique is described featuring an AZ4620 photoresist as a sacrificial layer for the microfabrication of a suspended structure. The AZ4620 meets all the requirements for the development of RF MEMS switches. Hence, the recipe and fabrication technique are optimized according to the required thickness. Preliminary measurements of the fabricated switch beam indicate that the required gap has been achieved. This optimized process is compatible with standard MEMS technology.