Chapter 12 – Nanocrystalline Diamond for RF-MEMS Applications

This article presents thermally actuated nanocrystalline diamond bridges for microwave and high power RF applications. The growth process along with the seeding technique for generating the diamond films has been discussed. RF applications which include mechanical resonators and electrostatically actuated switches demonstrated by other researchers is presented. The diamond bridges are integrated in CPW and microstrip topologies to operate as a switch and tunable inductor. In addition to small signal measurements, high power measurements in the range of 24-47 dBm are performed for the switches integrated in the microstrip topology.