25th Iranian Conference on Electrical Engineering (lCEE2017)
Low Actuation Voltage RF MEMS Shunt Capacitive
Switch
Based On Rotated Serpentine Spring
Hassan Saffari Reza Askari Moghadam
Msc student Assistant professor
Faculty of New Sciences and Faculty of New Sciences and
Technologies Technologies
University of Tehran University of Tehran
Iran Iran
Email: sh. saffari70@ut. ac. ir Email: r.askari
Abstract- RF MEMS switches are extensively used in radars,
satellite, wireless systems, communication systems and switch
matrices in order to achieve low power consumed, high isolation
and be fabricated in small size and weight. This Paper reports a
low actuation voltage Capacitive Shunt RF MEMS Switch with
two flexures based on rotated serpentine spring concept. The
switch is designed on a CPW line with an impedance of 50n. The
dielectric that is used is silicon nitrate with thickness of O.lum.
Actuation voltage of S.8V and high capacitive ratio is achieved.
RF analysis is performed in MATLAB. The results show that the
return loss is -0.24 at 13GHz and the isolation is -49dB at 13GHz.
Keywords- RF MEMS switch; Low voltage actuation;
Spring-structure
I. INTRODUCTION
Electromechanical switches are used in RF frequencies
extensively. These switches usually are made with the surface
micro-mashing methods. RF MEMS switches grew quickly
due to their less power loss, high isolation, small size and low
cost. Because of their advantages, these switches can be good
alternatives to other solid-state switches [1] . So they can be
used in various applications such as phase shifters,RF circuits,
circuit switching networks and space communication systems
[2-4] . One of the important elements that is used in satellite
communication systems is switch matrices. It is important to
use a switch which has low power consume and high isolation.
So RF MEMS switches are a good choice for switch matrices.
RF MEMS switches are usually divided into two
categories: ohmic switch and capacitive switch. In the ohmic
switch, the transmission signal is like an electrical signal pass
[5-7] . When the switch is in the upstate, No signal crosses
through the transmission line. When the switch is actuated the
bridge is pulled down, thus the signal path is closed. RF
MEMS capacitive switches use a dielectric layer between two
electrodes [8-lO] . However,the dielectric layer creates some
problems such as adherence.
978-1-5090-5963-8/17/$31. 00 ©2017 IEEE
293
Mohammad Tahmasebipour
Assistant professor
Faculty of New Sciences and
Technologies
University of Tehran
Iran
@ut.ac.ir Email: Tahmasebipour@ut.ac.ir
In the capacitive switches, the transmission signal is a
radio frequency signal. When a switch is in the upstate, the
signal cannot cross trough CPW line. By applying an electrical
voltage, the switch is closed and the signal is transmitted
through the switch to the ground. In fact, in the capacitive
switches, ON or OFF state is obtained by a change in the
capacitance value between movable switching and signal
transmission line. The RF performance has a direct relevance
with a ratio of the capacitor value in the down state to the
capacitor value in the upstate. One of the most important
parameters for improving this ratio is surface micro
roughness[II] .
Switch bandwidth defined from the isolation and
insertion loss diagram. Sometimes for an increase in the
bandwidth, many switches are suggested that have been built
by connecting several bridges. Increase in the number of
bridges can develop the bandwidth of switches[12] .
In 2015 a capacitive RF MEMS switch has been designed
that has two bridges on each side of the CPW line. The switch
has a wide frequency band. Also, the actuation voltages of the
bridges are low [12] .
RF MEMS switches are usually stimulated by various
mechanisms such as electrostatic, piezoelectric,
electromagnetic and electrothermal [13-15] . Due to the lower
power consumption, the electrostatic mechanism has been
used in the majority of RF MEMS switches that have been
proposed so far. But low actuation voltage is very important in
designing of RF MEMS. In 2016 a novel RF mems switch is
designed and modeled with actuation voltage of 4.2v [16] .
The structure that presented in this article is made of double
flexures based on the rotated serpentine spring. This structure
can reduce the spring constant without an increase in the size of
switches. This structure has a low spring constant and hence
the actuation voltage has a direct relation with spring
constant,the actuation voltage is very low. One side of the
bridge is fixed and the other side can be pulled down by an
electrostatic force. Deflection of the beam depends on the
25th Iranian Conference on Electrical Engineering (lCEE2017)

Figure!. Top view schematic of the proposed switch Figure2. Structure of the proposed switch. a) Cross section view of
switch b) Spring structure of bridges

location of applied force. In the following, simulations are

done by the HFSS Software.

II. STRUCTURE OF THE PROPOSED SWITCH

Fig. 1 illustrates the structure of the proposed

switch which is designed with two flexures based on rotated
serpentine spring. One side of the cantilever beam is fixed to
the side walls. The switch is designed on a CPW line with
demotions of 55 - 90 - 55 Jim. Silicon nitrate is used as the
dielectric layer, because of high relative permittivity
coefficient. The ports are defined on thin conductors which
located at the both sides of the transition line. Fig. 2a shows Figure3. Cross section view for the proposed switch in OFF
stateDiminutions of the proposed switch
the spring structure of the flexures and also Fig. 2b shows a
cross-section of the proposed switch that is made of gold on a
TABLE T. DrMENSIONS OF THE PROPOSED SWITCH
silicon substrate.
When no voltage applies to the electrodes, the switch is Dimellsiolls Value(um)

in the up-state. Therefore, the capacitance between the switch 1 CPW 55-90-55
2 substrate 200
and the transmission line is small. By applying an electrostatic
3 Length of la 50
force the switch is pulled down and the capacitance increases. 4 Length of lb 100
So the signal path is closed. Fig. 3 shows the proposed switch 5 Width of spring 10
in the OFF state. When the applied voltage is removed, the 6 Thickness of gold 2
switch returns to its original state, because of the mechanical 7 Gap 2
8 Thickness of Si3N4 0.1
stress. Thus the RF signal can be transmitted through the
transmission line.
Where k is spring constant of the beam, g is the gap
between electrode and cantilever beam. And A is the cross
III. ACTUATION VOLTAGE
sectional area of the electrodes.
One of the most important issues in designing the RF Numerous ways can be offered to reduce the actuation
MEMS switch is lower actuation voltage. Various structures voltage. The first is a reduction in gap height. But it is not
have been proposed to RF MEMS switch. Actuation voltage is desirable because it will reduce ratio of Cdown/Cup which
the lowest voltage which applied to the electrodes for pulling degrade the RF performance. Reducing the gap also creates
down the bridge and it can be calculated as: other problems in the construction step, especially in
suspension of a beam. Another way is to increase the cross­

V=
8kg� (1)
sectional area of the electrodes. But it will increase the size of
the switch. So the best way for reducing the actuation voltage
27A&o is a reduction in the spring constant. Actuation voltage can be
reduced by providing an appropriate structure. Since in this

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2017 25th Iranian Conference on Electrical Engineering (lCEE)

Figure5. Electrical model of a cantilever beam switch [II]

TABLE Ill. DIELECTRIC CONSTANT OF SEVERAL MATERIALS

Material Dielectric constant

I Si02 3.9
Figure4. Actuation voltage for the proposed switch 2 Si3N4 7.6
3 AI203 8-9
switch, on side of the bridge is fixed to the side walls, torque 4 HfD2 16-19
forces applied to the fixed points. Therefore spring constant is 5 Zr02 20-23
obtained as follow:

IV. RF PERFORMANCE
(2)
The electric model of a cantilever beam has been shown
in Fig. 5[11] . Where Zo is CPW impedance. Rc and Zh are
Where M j is the torsion moment or torque around the j­ resistance and impedance of the cantilever beams respectively.
Also,Cp is the fringing field capacitance and Cs is calculated
axis (N m) and (); is the rotation around the i-axis. The spring
as follow:
constant for a rotated serpentine spring can be calculated
as[17] : C -�
S (4)
t
g+--
k :::: 2GJp c,.
B
- (2N+3)lp (3)
Where A is the cross section of an electrode. Also Er and t
are the thickness of the dielectric layer and relative dielectric
Where N is number of folding and Jp is cross-section constant, respectively. In the up-state capacitance value is
torsion factor of the spring element and also Ip is the length of obtained as follow:
spring element which has been shown in Fig. 2. a. Also G is
the shear modulus. Since the switch is designed with two (5)
flexures based on the rotated serpentine spring, it has a
low spring constant and the actuation voltage is low. In Fig. 4
the actuation voltage is plotted in term of displacement Also by applying an electrostatic voltage switch changes
change. As is clear from the Fig. 4, actuation voltage of the to off state. The capacitance in off state can be calculated as
switch is equal to 5. 8v. Table 2 shows the actuation voltages follow:
for some structures that have been proposed so far. So the
proposed switche has a low actuation voltage rather than these c = cOcrA
Down (6)
switches. t

TABLE II. ACTUATION VOLTAGES FOR DIFFERENT RF MEMS SWITCHES

For evaluation of RF performance, we should calculate
reference Actuation Dielectric layer the Cratio = Cdown/Cup . The higher Cratio , the better RF
voltage(V)
I [18] 82 Si02
performance.
2 [19] 25 Si3N4 By ignoring of the fringing capacitive the Cratio depends
3 [20] 18.3 Si02 on the thickness, permittivity of the dielectric and gap height.
4 [21] 16 SiN There are two methods for increasing the Cratio in order to
5 [81 9.7 HfD2
have better performance. In the fust method we can increase
6 [16] 8.82 Si3N4
the gap height. But in this case, actuation voltage will be
increase and so it is undesirable. There is a tradeoff between

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25th Iranian Conference on Electrical Engineering (lCEE2017)

Figure7. Isolation simulation for the proposed switch

Fig. 6: The value of Cm1io in term of thickness changes for variety materials
assuming that 9 = 211m

actuation voltage and RF performance. In the other method,

we can use from a dielectric layer by higher relative
permittivity. Fig. 6 illustrates the value of Crario in term of
thickness changes with the assuming that 9 = 211m for variety
materials. Table 2 shows dielectric constant for some
materials. Zr02 has the greatest dielectric constant. But in
most of the RF MEMS switches that have been proposed so
far, silicon nitrate and silicon dioxide are used as dielectric Figure8. Return loss simulation for the proposed switch
layer. Because in the RF MEMS switch the substrates usually
are made of silicon and deposition of a layer with different
V. CONCLUSION
lattice constants is difficult due to lattice mismatch. In this
switch, a silicon nitrate dielectric layer has been utilized with Actuation voltage is one of the most important issues
the thickness of 0. 1urn and Er = 7.6. So by taking 9 = 2um, in the design of the RF MEMS switch. Actuation voltage can
Cratiocan be calculated which is equal to 153. be reduced by different methods. Gap height, cross-sectional
area of the electrodes and spring constant are effective
For evolution the RF performance, simulation has been parameters in determination of the actuation voltage. The best
done by HFSS software. RF performance is characterized by S way to reduce the actuation voltage is reduction in the spring
parameters that can be obtained as follow: constant. In this paper, a novel spring structure based on
rotated serpentine spring is proposed which eliminates the
spring constant and actuation voltage. The proposed switch
(7) has a low actuation voltage value of 5. 8V.

s21 - -2010
-
� 2Z2Zh +hZo I (8)
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