Fabrication and characterization of RF MEMS high isolation switch upto X-band
2013 IEEE International Conference on Microwaves, Communications, Antennas and Electronic Systems (COMCAS 2013), 2013
ABSTRACT Design and development of a metal contact switch that employs micro electromechanical sy... more ABSTRACT Design and development of a metal contact switch that employs micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) based on electrostatic actuation and implemented using a coplanar waveguide (CPW) with three switch cells is presented. The design is based on the series-shunt switch configuration. The main objective of the present design is to achieve high isolation up to 12GHz frequency (X-band). The dimensions of the MEMS switch have been optimized with finite element method based Coventor Ware software. The switch has been fabricated using gold based surface micromachining process. The mechanical response, electrical response, switching time, loss performance and Intermodulation distortions of the MEMS switch have been experimentally investigated. Return loss better than 15dB and isolation greater than 60dB have been experimentally obtained upto 12GHz from the fabricated switch.
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Papers by Sukomal Dey
are fabricated on 635 μm alumina substrate using a surface micromachining process. SPMT switching networks demonstrate a measured return loss of more than 14 dB, a worst case insertion loss of ~1.76 dB and isolation of ~14.5 dB up to 12 GHz. The maximum area of the fabricated SPMT switch is ~1.2 mm2. The SPMT switches are capable of handling 1 W of RF power up to >1 billion cycles at 25 °C, and sustained even up to >80 million cycles with 0.5 W at 85 °C. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported wide range of MEMS SPMT switches and their respective performance evaluations in the literature that has undergone extensive measurement stages.
SP8T switches are connected back to back to develop the 3-bit phase shifter using different delay lines at 35 GHz. Finally, the phase shifter provides average return loss of better than 14 dB and average insertion loss of 4.4 dB over the 34.75–35.25 GHz. Measured average
phase error is less than 0.98° at 35 GHz. The total area of the fabricated 3-bit phase shifter is 5.95 mm2. SP8T switches are capable of handling 0.1–1 W of power up to 100 million cycles which is sufficient power handling capability for wireless communication systems. Reliability
of the phase shifter is extensively characterized with different incident RF powers at room temperature (25°C) and discussed in detail. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first reported MEMS 3-bit phase shifter in the literature that has used a minimum number of
switching elements per phase state.
individual primary phase-bits (11.25◦/22.5◦/45◦/90◦/180◦) that are fundamental building blocks of a complete 5-bit phase shifter have been designed, fabricated and experimentally
characterized. Furthermore, two different 5-bit switched-line phase shifters, that lead to 25% size reduction and result in marked improvement in the reliability of the complete 5-bit phase shifter with 30 V actuation voltage, have been developed. The performance comparison between two different CPW-based switched-line phase shifters have been extensively investigated and validated. The complete 5-bit phase shifter demonstrates an average insertion loss of 5.4 dB with a return loss of better than 14 dB at 17.25 GHz. The maximum phase error of 1.3◦ has been obtained at 17.25 GHz from these 5-bit phase shifters.