Piezoelectrically actuated RF MEMS DC contact switches with low voltage operation

In this paper, fully integrated radio frequency (RF) microelectromechanical system (MEMS) switches with piezoelectric actuation have been proposed, designed, fabricated, and characterized. At a very low operation voltage of 2.5V, reliable and reproducible operation of the fabricated switch was obtained. The proposed RF MEMS switch is comprised of a piezoelectric cantilever actuator with a floated contact electrode and isolated CPW transmission line suspended above the silicon substrate. The measured insertion loss and isolation of the fabricated piezoelectric switch are -0.22 dB and -42dB at a frequency of 2GHz, respectively.

I. Introduction

As there are great demands for radio frequency (RF) switches with higher performance for advanced wireless mobile communication systems, much research efforts are being performed to develop RF microelectromechanical system (MEMS) switches because of their superior performance characteristics compared with the traditional semiconductor switches such as GaAs field-enhanced transistors (FET) and pin diodes, which are high electrical isolation, low insertion loss, wide frequency band, and negligible power consumption [1] Fig. 1. Schematic drawing of proposed piezoelectric RF MEMS switch. .