Thermally-actuated latching RF MEMS switch

Abstract

Here, a new thermally-actuated latching RF MEMS switch is presented. The switch uses two thermal actuators connected to two thin arms which serve as the signal lines of coplanar waveguide switch. The actuators pull the thin arms sequentially, and latch the switch. The switch can be actuated ON and OFF by using voltage or current pulse. Using a dielectric (nitride) as an interface between the actuators and the thin arms, the RF circuitry is separated from DC actuators, allowing wide band operation. The proposed switch has a simple RF circuitry that makes it suitable for integration in more complex configurations. The switch demonstrates excellent RF performance of better than 0.3 dB insertion loss and a return loss of better than 20 dB for the entire frequency band up to 20 GHz.