Flexible polyimide film based high isolation RF MEMS switches fabricated using printed circuit processing techniques

In this paper, RF MEMS switches fabricated using printed circuit processing techniques are presented. The key feature is the use of flexible kapton polyimide film as the switch membrane. Specifically, capacitive contact type coplanar waveguide (CPW) shunt switches that provide very high isolation in the OFF state are discussed here. An example high isolation switch design with a maximum isolation of 54 dB at 18 GHz is presented. For this design, the insertion loss is less than 0.3-0.4 dB in the frequency range of 1-30 GHz and isolation values are better than 20 dB in the frequency range of 12 to 30 GHz.