• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.58-63
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• 2011

A low loss radio frequency(RF) micro electro mechanical systems(MEMS) switch driven by a low actuation voltage was designed for the development of a new RF MEMS switch. The RF MEMS switch should be encapsulated. The glass cap and fabricated RF MEMS switch were assembled by the Au/Sn eutectic bonding principle for wafer-level packaging. The through-vias on the glass substrate was made by the glass dry etching and Au electroplating process. The packaged RF MEMS switch had an actuation voltage of 12.5 V, an insertion loss below 0.25 dB, a return loss above 16.6 dB, and an isolation value above 41.4 dB at 6 GHz.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.177-182
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• 2007

This paper presents the see-saw type RF MEMS switch based on a single crystalline silicon structure with narrow gap vertical comb. Low actuation voltage and high isolation are key features to be solved in electrostatic RF MEMS switch design. Since these parameters in conventional parallel plate RF MEMS switch designs are in trade-off relationship, both requirements cannot be met simultaneously. In the vertical comb design, however, the actuation voltage is independent of the vertical separation distance between the contact electrodes. Therefore, the large separation gap between contact electrodes is implemented to achieve high isolation. We have designed and fabricated RF MEMS switch which has 46dB isolation at 5GHz, 0.9dB insertion loss at 5GHz and 40V actuation voltage.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.519-520
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• 2007

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.173-178
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• 2015

In lieu of the excellent radio frequency (RF) performance of microelectromechanical system ( MEMS) switches, these micro switches need higher actuation voltage for their operation. This requirement is secondary to concerns over the swtiches’ reliability. This paper reports high reliability operation of RF MEMS switches with low voltage requirements. The proposed switch is optimised to perform in the Q-band, which results in actuation voltage of just 16.4 V. The mechanical stress gradient in the thin micro membrane is computed by simulating von Mises stress in a multi-physics environment that results in 90.4 MPa stress. The computed spring constant for the membrane is 3.02 N/m. The switch results in excellent RF performance with simulated isolation of above 38 dB, insertion loss of less than 0.35 dB and return loss of above 30 dB in the Q-band.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2007.06a
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• pp.513-514
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• 2007

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.147-150
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• 2005

Low actuation voltage and no contact stiction are the important factors to apply MEMS RF switches to mobile devices. Conventional electrostatic MEMS RF switches require several tens of voltages for actuation. In this paper we propose PAS MEMS RF switch which adopt PZT actuators and seesaw cantilevers to meet the above requirements. The fundamental structures of PAS MEMS switch were designed, optimized, and fabricated. Through the developed processes PAS SPDT MEMS RF switches were successfully fabricated on 4" wafers and they showed good electrical properties. The driving voltage was less than 5 volts. And the insertion loss was -0.5dB and the isolation was 35dB at 5GHz. The switching speed was about 5kHz. So these MEMS RF switches can be applicable to mobile communication devices or wireless multi-media devices at lower than 6GHz.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.953-956
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• 2005

Low voltage actuation and high isolation characteristics are key features to be solved in electrostatic RF switch design. Since these parameters in the conventional parallel plate MEMS switch design are in trade-off relation, both requirements cannot be met simultaneously. In vertical comb design, however, the actuation voltage is independent to the vertical separation distance between the contact electrodes. Then, we can design the large separation distance between contact electrodes to get high isolation. We have designed an RF MEMS switch which has -40dB isolation at 5 GHz and 6 V operation voltages. The characteristics of the fabricated switch are being evaluate.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.7-12
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• 2008

This paper presents a lateral resistive contact RF MEMS switch using comb drive. Our goal was to fabricate the RF MEMS switch with high reliability and good RF characteristics for front end module in wireless transceiver system. Therefore, comb drive is used for large contact force in order to achieve low insertion loss and small off-state capacitance in order to achieve high isolation. The single crystalline silicon is used for mechanical reliability. As a result, the developed switch showed insertion loss less than 0.44 dB at 2 GHz, isolation greater than 60 dB, and low actuation voltage at 26 V.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.07b
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• pp.652-655
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• 2004

RF MEMS is a miniature device or an array of integration devices and mechanical components and fabricated with If batch-processing techniques. RF MEMS application area are in phased arrays and reconfigurable apertures for defence and telecommunication systems, switching network for satellite communication, and single-pole double throw switches for wireless application. Recently, RF MEMS switches have been developed for the application to the milimeter wave system. RF MEMS switches offer a substantilly higher performance than PM diode or FET switches. In this paper, SPDT(single-pole-double-throw) switch are designed to use 10 GHz. Actuation voltage and displacement are simulated by tool. And stress and distribution are simulated.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.116-120
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• 2013

This paper proposes a novel RF MEMS dc-contact switch with stiff membrane on a quartz substrate. The uniqueness of this work lies in the utilization of a seesaw mechanism to restore the movable part to its rest position. The switching action is done by using separate pull-down and pull-up electrodes, and hence operation of the switch does not rely on the elastic recovery force of the membrane. One of the main problems faced by electrostatically actuated MEMS switches is the high operational voltages, which results from bending of the membrane, due to internal stress gradient. This is resolved by using a stiff and thick membrane. This membrane consists of flexible meanders, for easy movement between the two states. The device operates with an actuation voltage of 6.43 V, an insertion loss of -0.047 dB and isolation of -51.82 dB at 2 GHz.