Analysis of a novel double driving signal line and driving electrodes separated RF MEMS switch

Abstract

A novel double driving signal line and driving electrodes separated radio frequency (RF) micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) switch was proposed in this paper to overcome the problems of the high actuation voltage, small displacement, and long pull-down time of the RF MEMS switches. Dynamic equations of the micro beam were built based on the small deflection theory. Dynamic behaviors of the proposed RF MEMS switch were analyzed and calculated by the variable separation method. The effects of different driving voltages, structure parameters and materials on the RF MEMS switch performance were discussed in detail. The simulation results presented that the proposed RF MEMS switch had an actuation voltage of 26 V, a pull-down time of 31.5 [Formula: see text] and an actuation displacement of 3 [Formula: see text]. The results also showed that the pull-down time of micro beam increased as the dielectric layer thickness increased. When the beam thickness was higher than 1.1 [Formula: see text], the switch could not pull down anymore. Additionally, the switch had a lowest pull down time when Al was used as micro beam material, compared to Au, Si, and SiC. The COMSOL Multiphysics finite element analysis was carried out to validate the MATLAB simulation results, and the comparison results were basically consistent with the MATLAB simulation results. Besides, the proposed switch had an insertion loss of −0.2 dB on up-state and isolation of more than −20 dB on down-state at 60 GHz derived from the electromagnetic simulation results. The actuation voltage, pull-down time, actuation displacement, and electromagnetic performances of the proposed RF MEMS switch were compared to some other switches, which were better than some existing switches.