Category: MEMS

Design and Analysis of RF MEMS Shunt Capacitive Switch for Low Actuation Voltage & High Capacitance Ratio
Johnson Taye1 and Koushik Guha2 M.Tech 2011-2013, National Institute of Technology Silchar, Assam & India 2 Assistant Professor, National Institute of Technology Silchar, Assam & India E-mail: koushikguha2009@gmail.com
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Abstract RF MEMS switches have superior performance over the contemporary solid-state devices. The study focuses on the realization of electrostatically actuated capacitive shunt switches for low actuation voltage with high capacitance ratio. Here, we have used a meander based beam for low-spring constant. Index Terms: RF MEMS; pull-down voltage; s-parameters; insertion loss; isolation.

III.

RESULTS & DISCUSSIONS

I.

INTRODUCTION

RF MEMS has seen a widespread use in wireless communication systems during the past few years due to their superior performance over the solid-state devices such as MESFETs and PIN diodes [1]. RF MEMS Switches show negligible power consumption, high isolation, very low insertion loss, high linearity and low intermodulation. But RF MEMS switches have a drawback that they require a very high voltage of actuation leading to slow switching. They also have low power handling ability, low cycle of operation and packaging issues. In wireless systems the problem of limited power resource availability exists, hence the use of MEMS switches is limited due to requirement of high actuation voltage. There have been numerous effort to lower the actuation voltage but at the cost of RF performance. This paper concentrates on the design and analysis of a low spring constant shunt capacitive switch [2] with actuation voltage as low as 2 V and a high capacitance ratio for an effective performance in wireless communication systems. II. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS

The pull-down voltage of the switch for a thickness of tb = 0.6 m and an air-gap height of g0 = 2 m is found to be 2.25 V. The up-state capacitance is 65 fF and the down-state capacitance is 5.65 pF. The capacitance ratio was found to be 87. The effect of the beam thickness and the beam height on the pull-down voltage and the capacitance ratio can be observed from table 1.
Table 1: Detailed simulation results
PARAMETERS Beam thickness (tb) Beam height (g0) Pull-down voltage (Vp) Up-Capacitance (Cup) Down-capacitance (Cd) Capacitance ratio 2 m 3.5 V 64.9 fF 5.4 pF 83.20 VALUES 0.8 m 2.5 m 4.75 V 54.3 fF 5.47 pF 100.73 3 m 6.25 V 47.2 fF 5.53 pF 117 0.6 m 2 m 2.25 V 65 fF 5.65 pF 87

The switching time was calculated for the switch for varying applied voltage (Vs) and was found to be 11.47 s at an applied voltage of Vs = 15V. The plot is shown in fig 2.

RF MEMS Shunt capacitive switch with meanders and increased actuation area is designed and investigated to meet the requirements of low-actuation voltage and high capacitance ratio. The model is shown in fig 1.

Fig. 2: Switching time (ts) vs. applied voltage (Vs)

Fig. 1: 3D model of the switch designed in COVENTORWARE [3]

The S-parameters are plotted in matlab. Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 shows the return loss (S11) and the insertion loss (S 21) of the three-meander switch in the ON state, respectively.

Fig. 3: Return loss (S11) for the switch in ON-state Fig. 5: Isolation (S21) for switch in OFF-state

IV.

CONCLUSIONS

As can be seen from the plots, during the ON state the return loss is less than -20 dB at 40 GHz and the insertion loss is less than 1.6 dB at 40 GHz for all the beam heights. The isolation (S21) is higher than -50 dB at 25 GHz for the switch in the actuated (OFF) state. The switch has a reasonably high capacitance ratio of 117. The pull-down voltage varies from 2.25 V to 6.25 V for different beam heights. V. REFERENCES

[1] Gabriel M. Rebeiz, RF MEMS Theory, Design and Technology, Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN: 0-471-20169-3.
Fig. 4: Insertion loss (S21) for the switch in ON-state

In the OFF state, the isolation of the signal from the output port should be fairly high. The isolation is shown in figure 5.

[2] P. Osterberg, H. Yie, X. Cai, J. White, and S. Senturia, Self-Consistent Simulation and Modeling of Electrostatically Deformed Diaphragms, 17th IEEE Int. Conference on Microelectromechanical Systems, MEMS' 94, Oiso, Japan, pp. 28-32, January 1994. [3] Coventorware software, http://www.coventorware.com.