DC CONTACT RF MEMS SWITCHES WITH LOW ACTUATION VOLTAGE

Capacitive RF MEMS switches demonstrate that it is difficult to obtain a perfect capacitive contact for a low actuation voltage. Architectures of MEMS switches with resistive contact are then developed. The objective is to minimize the contact resistance to obtain the best RF performances while keeping a low actuation voltage. First set of results have shown that good RF performances, with contact resistance lower than 1.3O, can be obtained with a 30V actuation voltage and with a 6µm gap height. With cantilever height around 1.5µm it will be then possible to obtain enough contact force with 6V applied voltage.