Design and Fabrication of Two-Stage-Driven Cantilever-Based RF MEMS Micro-Switch

Abstract

We have designed two kinds of cantilever MEMS switches based on two-stage driving. These micro-switches can mitigate tip-first-touching of the contact part and expected to have a long lifetime. Moreover, the driving voltage is low while keeping the device miniaturization. The RF characteristics of insertion loss and isolation are calculated and shown to be excellent. The micro-switches are fabricated by silicon deep dry etching using an SOI wafer and then electrostatic bonding onto a glass substrate. This process is fairly simple and confirmed to be able to fabricate two electrode gaps precisely.