A NOVEL STRUCTURE OF RF MEMS CAPACITIVE SERIES SWITCH FOR AVOIDING POWER INDUCED STICTION
J.D. MARTINEZ, P. BLONDY, A. POTHIER, D. BOUYGE,A. CRUNTEANU, M. CHATRAS

Abstract. RF power induced stiction remains a definitive limitation in electrostatically-actuated MEMS switches working in hot switching conditions for power levels > 500 mW. The authors present in this paper a novel structure of capacitive series switch intended to reduce the electrostatic force induced by the incoming RF power. The switch is fabricated on a high-resistivity Si substrate using both surface and bulk micromachining techniques. It can be properly designed for operation between 2-8 GHz. The fabricated switch has insertion losses <0.4 dB and isolation >10 dB at the design frequency. Power handling measurement tests have shown that the switch can handle up to 5 W at 10 GHz over a minimum of 10.5 million cycles.