Design and Analysis of a Fluid-Filled RF MEMS Switch

Abstract

In the present study, a fluid-filled RF MEMS (Radio Frequency Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) switch is proposed and designed. In the analysis of the operating principle of the proposed switch, air, water, glycerol and silicone oil were adopted as filling dielectric to simulate and research the influence of the insulating liquid on the drive voltage, impact velocity, response time, and switching capacity of the RF MEMS switch. The results show that by filling the switch with insulating liquid, the driving voltage can be effectively reduced, while the impact velocity of the upper plate to the lower plate is also reduced. The high dielectric constant of the filling medium leads to a lower switching capacitance ratio, which affects the performance of the switch to some extent. By comparing the threshold voltage, impact velocity, capacitance ratio, and insertion loss of the switch filled with different media with the filling media of air, water, glycerol, and silicone oil, silicone oil was finally selected as the liquid filling medium for the switch. The results show that the threshold voltage is 26.55 V after filling with silicone oil, which is 43% lower under the same air-encapsulated switching conditions. When the trigger voltage is 30.02 V, the response time is 10.12 μs and the impact speed is only 0.35 m/s. The frequency 0–20 GHz switch works well, and the insertion loss is 0.84 dB. To a certain extent, it provides a reference value for the fabrication of RF MEMS switches.