Charging Effects and Related Equivalent Circuits for Ohmic Series and Shunt Capacitive RF MEMS Switches

George PAPAIOANNU¹, Romolo MARCELLI², Giancarlo BARTOLUCCI³, Simone CATONI², Giorgio De ANGELIS²,Andrea LUCIBELLO², Emanuela PROIETTI², Benno MARGESIN⁴, Flavio GIACOMOZZI⁴, François DEBORGIES<sup>5

1</sup>University of Athens, Solid State Physics Section, Panepistimiopolis Zografos, Greece
²CNR-IMM Roma, Via del Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133 Roma, Italy, Phone +39 06 4993 4536
³University of Roma “Tor Vergata”, Roma, Italy, Phone +39 06 72597350
⁴FBK-irst, Povo (TN), Italy,Phone +39 0461 314490
⁵ESA-ESTEC, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

Abstract. Charging effects in dielectrics are currently considered as the major limiting factor for the reliability of RF MEMS switches. In this paper, an ohmic series switch and a shunt capacitive one are studied for modeling the charging contributions due to the actuation pads used for the electrostatic actuation of the device. For simulation purposes, a lumped circuit based on equivalent capacitances can be defined.