RF MEMS switches for configurable RF devices

This book illustrates a novel RF MEMS capacitive switch design that is Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) process-compatible. The switch structure is cantilever with fingers for capacitive coupling. The vertical bending characteristic of bimorph cantilever beams under different temperatures is utilized to turn the switch on and off. A set of electrical, mechanical, and thermal models is established, and cross-domain electro-thermo-mechanical simulations are performed to optimize the design parameters of the switch. This switch has a vast number of applications in the RF/microwave field, such as configurable voltage control oscillators, filters, and configurable matching networks. To illustrate the applications of the switch, two broadband communication applications for the designed MEMS switch, broadband voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) and broadband filter, were demonstrated. The low-loss, low-noise nature of the MEMS switch improved VCO phase noise performance. In addition, we demonstrate the use of MEMS switches to enable large corner frequency adjustments in high-frequency, lowpass filter designs.