Analysis of RF MEMS shunt capacitive switch with uniform and non-uniform meanders

This paper reports on electromechanical, switching time and performance analysis of capacitive shunt RF MEMS switch with uniform and non-uniform meanders. The MEMS switch is a freely moving membrane over coplanar wave guide. Electromechanical analysis is done for movable beam with gold as material and dielectric as Si₃N₄ and HfO₂. For these dielectric materials pull in voltage is 2.3 and 2 V respectively with beam thickness of 0.8 µm by using COMSOL FEM Tool. Si₃N₄ with dielectric constant of 7.6 gives C_ratio of 8.69 and 11.13 for 0.8 and 0.6 μm of beam thickness respectively. RF performance analysis is done by using HFSS software and the simulation results states that non uniform single meander has return loss as −60 dB, insertion loss −0.2 dB and isolation loss −14 dB at 20 GHz frequency and uniform 3 meander switch has return loss as −55 dB. Switching time analysis is done by using MATLAB. For uniform three meander it is 0.12 ms and for non-uniform one meander beam it is 0.7 ms. Whereas use of HfO₂ with dielectric constant of 14 as dielectric gives C_ratio of 14.93 and 19.66 for 0.8 and 0.6 μm of beam thickness respectively with gap between the electrode beam and dielectric as 0.8 μm.