Geometrical Requirement Analysis of RF-MEMS Switch

Radio Frequency Micro-Electromechanical Systems (RF MEMS) have rapidly advanced over the past two decades. The integration of MEMS components in RF devices has met the demand for miniaturized components, resulting in compact devices with low power consumption and enhanced RF performance at higher frequencies. The control electrode has both metal-metal contact as well as metal-dielectric later contact in the Co Planer Waveguide (CPW). Besides the intrinsic stress due to the material property and the defects due to processing, the mismatch in the material properties between two different metals in the bimetallic structure affects the reliability of RF cantilever MEMS. For this study, silicon and gold are chosen for bimetallic structure and the deflection, sensitivity, and stiffness of both materials are analyzed to estimate the mismatch between them. Typical cantilever MEMS structures have been used with the dimension of length varying from 100 μm to 300 μm and the width and thickness of 10μm. The mismatch in deflection, stiffness, and sensitivity between gold and silicon are the important parameters considering the operational limits of RF MEMS. MEMSolver 3.0 is used to calculate the deflection. The assumptions considered during the analysis were uniform beam cross section and the mass of the beam is negligible compared to the load.