Cold- and hot-switching lifetime characterizations of ohmic-contact RF MEMS switches

Abstract

In this paper, to evaluate the applicability of electrostatically-actuated metal to metal direct-contact RF MEMS switches in practical RF fields, we performed three kinds of lifetime tests for the switches using three different conditions: cold-switching with no power, hot-switching with RF power, and hot-switching with DC current loads. The tested MEMS switch was demonstrating stable operation even after 10⁹ cycles when cold-switching with no loads. We also experimentally showed that the tested switches could endure up to 10⁶ cycles with 0.5W of RF power and 10⁸ cycles with 30mA of DC current.