Proceedings of 2017 IEEE International Conference on Circuits and Systems (ICCS 2017)

Arc-Shaped Cantilever Beam RF MEMS Switch

for Low Actuation Voltage

Aamir Saud khan T.Shanmuganantham

Department of Electronics Engineering Assistant Professor
Pondicherry University, Puducherry, India. Department of Electronics Engineering
aamir.105023@gmail.com Pondicherry University, Puducherry, India.
shanmuga.dee@pondiuni.edu.in

Abstract—With last two decades, Radio Frequency (RF)
Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) switches are becoming
more popular in the electronics domain. Since power
consumption has become the highest concern in many electronics
devices. The main concern in using RF MEMS switches is its high
actuation voltage. Thus this paper generally focuses on the
analysis and simulation of RF MEMS metal contact switch
having an arc-shaped cantilever beam to obtain the low actuation
voltage. Simulations are done using the finite element modeling
(FEM). Intellisuite 8.7v software has been used to get the results
of the switch. The design has been modified according to
thickness of the beam and air gap to carry out electrostatic
actuation. The pull-in voltage is obtained to be 1.4 V.
mechanism is stiction type for capacitive switches [4].The
most important concern in RF MEMS switches are its high
actuation voltage which gives capacitance in upstate and
resistance in down state. For several years researchers are
trying to reduce the actuation voltage up to or below 5V
because as we know today’s IC technologies generally work
with or below 5V. In this paper the main focus is on the
reduction of actuation voltage. This paper discusses about the
design and analysis of arc- shaped cantilever beam. In this
paper part II deals with the basic physics behind the proposed
switch, part III deals with the simulated results.

Keywords—RF MEMS; cantilever beam; actuation voltage; air II. SWITCH DESIGN
gap; spring constant.
RF MEMS switches have two basic analysis as
I. INTRODUCTION mechanical analysis and electromagnetic analysis. MEMS
switches are further divided into series and shunt
Microsystems switches are designed to work at Radio
configuration which have metal-metal or capacitive contacts
Frequencies (RF), and they are the major area of deep research
[5].
over the recent few years in both academic and industrial
group. MEMS switches are made up of a pellicle which are
actuated electrically and convert that electrical energy to
mechanical change so as to make physical contact with
transmission lines. In the RF integrated circuits, the traditional
GaAs FET and p-i-n diode switches has been replaced by
MEMS switches because of their less power dissipation, less
insertion loss, high isolation, light weight, high reliability,
high Q, high linearity etc,. [1]-[2].

Generally MEMS can be divided into two categories:

MEMS sensors and MEMS actuators. MEMS actuators are
based on moving mechanism activated by an electrical signal.
Micro sensors are the devices use for detect the change in the
environment by measuring its corresponding parameters such
as mechanical, chemical, thermal and electromagnetic
Fig.1. RF MEMS cantilever switch
information.

The main problem with RF MEMS based switches
are its relatively less speed , its power handling capacity is
less, its high actuation voltage, its reliability is about 0.1 –
100 billion cycles but many system requires nowadays about
20-200 billion cycles [3]. In RF MEMS switches the failure
mechanism are resistive type for DC switches and the failure
It is an Arc- shaped cantilever beam where anchor is
fixed at one end and another is hanging above the CPW
transmission line. The design parameters of the beam such as
its length, width, thickness, air gap width of lower electrode is
given in the Table I.

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 Proceedings of 2017 IEEE International Conference on Circuits and Systems (ICCS 2017)

Table I Dimensions of Parameters

B. Electrostatic Analysis
Length of beam, l 300μm
Width of beam, w 100 μm
Thickness of beam, t 1 μm
Width of lower 100 μm
electrode, W
Air Gap, g0 1 μm

Whereas the silicon substrate thickness is 50μm. A

bias voltage has been given between the lower electrode and
the cantilever beam. The actuation is obtained once the
cantilever is deflects by 1μm. The material used for making
the cantilever beam, anchor and CPW transmission line is
aluminum (Al).
A. Mechanical Analysis
Fig.3.MEMS cantilever beam with pull down electrode
The physics behind the electrostatic actuation is
simply the electrostatic force of attraction between the two
parallel plates having the opposite charges. The capacitance
between the two plates is given [6]

C= (4)

Where g represents the height between the beam and

the electrode when bias voltage is applied and ε is the
permittivity of the medium. The electrostatic force is given by
the [6]

V2
Fe= - (5)
2 2

Fig.2. Simple cantilever beam
When a force F is applied at the end of the cantilever
beam it gets deflected by ∆x. The relation between F and ∆x is
given by
Where V represents the bias voltage between
electrode and the beam and Fe represents electrostatic force. It
is imprecise that the electrostatic force is evenly distributed
over the actuation electrode. So when we equate the
electrostatic force with the spring force we get
V2
= k (g0-g) (6)
2 2

F = K ∆x (1)
Where g0 is the height of the beam for zero bias
Where K represents the spring constant of the beam voltage. So solving equation (6) for voltage we get [6]
given by [6]
2k 2 ( 0 − )
3EI
V= (7)
K= 3 (2)
2
At ( )g0 electrostatic force becomes more than the
Where E represents Young’s modulus of the beam 3
which is the material property and I represents moment of mechanical restoring force resulting (a) cantilever beam
inertia of the beam and for rectangular cross-section it is given become unstable (b) beam collapses to down state position
by [6] [7]. When we differentiate the equation (7) with respect to the
3 height of the beam and equating it with zero, we get that
I= (3) instability occurs exactly at the two-thirds of the zero bias
12
voltage. By substituting this value back to equation (7) we get
Where w represents beam width and t represents
beam thickness. As far as the cross section of the beam is 2 0 8 3
rectangular the moment of inertia will be given by equation Vp= V ( ) = 0
(8)
3 27
(3).

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 Proceedings of 2017 IEEE International Conference on Circuits and Systems (ICCS 2017)

Vp is called as “pull-in voltage” or “pull-down

voltage” or sometimes “actuation voltage.

Fig.5. Switch displacement

Fig.4. Fabrication process

Fabrication process which is used here is surface

micromachining. First silicon substrate is deposited then a
three mask is used to build the device. Mask first is used for
the design of CPW transmission line then mask second is used
for anchor for providing the air gap and the mask third is used
for the design of cantilever beam. The sacrificial layer is used
to provide the air gap and at end of the process it is completely
removed.

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Fig.6. Mises stress

The Thermoelectromechanical analysis has been
done on the Intellisuite v8.7 software. First material is chosen
then boundary conditions were applied for fixing anchor and
substrate of the switch. Then voltage is applied between the
beam and the bottom electrode so as to get the pull-in voltage.

From Fig.5 switch vertical displacement can be seen

and it can be seen clearly that the switch shows the deflection
of 1.0519 μm. The mises stress can be seen from Fig.6 and it
is the minimum stress at which the material starts yielding i.e.,
at which switch is in its ON state and it is 2.71162 Mpa.

The vertical displacement of the beam versus

applied voltage from the simulation is shown in Fig.7 and it
shows that pull-down voltage is found to be about 1.4V.

Fig.7. Voltage V/s beam vertical displacement

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 Proceedings of 2017 IEEE International Conference on Circuits and Systems (ICCS 2017)

IV. CONCLUSION
From the simulated results we can say that the lowest
actuation voltage or pull-in voltage is found to be 1.4V which
is shown in Fig.7. The switch was designed using 2-D layout
and fabricated in intellifab and then simulated in Thermo
Electro Mechanical (TEM) analysis module from Intellisuite.
From the analysis of all the parameters we can say that the
vital factor to get the low actuation voltage of the switch is
spring constant and design of the cantilever.
Since RF MEMS switches have been one of the
fastest growing switches in defense and research application.
So there is lot of space for important analysis such as S-
parameters of the switch. In future we can further work on the
switching time, reliability etc, for better overall results.

References
[1] G. M. Rebeiz and J. B. Muldavin, “RF MEMS Switches and
SwitchCircuits,” IEEE Microwave magazine, pp. 59-71, December
2001.
[2] Norshahida Saba ,Norhayati Soin, and Khairun Nisa Khamil,
“Simulation and Analysis of Actuation Voltage of Electrostatically
Actuated RF MEMS CantileverSwitch,”2015 International Conference
on Smart Sensors and Application (ICSSA).
[3] K.S.Beh, Haslina Jaafar, Nurul Amziah Md Yunus and Suhaidi Shafie,
“Design and Simulation of Low VoltageRF MEMS Series Switch
Array,” 2013 IEEE International Conference On Circuits And Systems.
[4] R.Raman, T.Shanmuganantham,“Design and Analysis of RF MEMS
Switch with π shaped Cantilever Beam for wireless Applications”, IEEE
International Conference on Emerging Technological Trends
(ICETT),21-22 October 2016.
[5] Jaafar, H.; Fong Li Nan; Yunus, N.A.M., "Design and simulation of high
performance RF MEMS series switch," Micro and Nanoelectronics
(RSM), 2011.
[6] G. Rebeiz, RF MEMS Theory, Design and Technology, New Jersey, J.
Wiley Sons, 2003.
[7] Varadan, Vijay K., Kalarickaparambil Joseph Vinoy, and K. Abraham
Jose.RF MEMS and their applications. John Wiley & Sons,2003.

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