High-Cycle Life Testing of RF MEMS Switches

Abstract

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Superposition Model for Dielectric Charging of RF MEMS Capacitive Switches Under Bipolar Control-Voltage Waveforms

“…However, as mentioned before, higher order terms are increasingly more difficult to extract due to instrument noise and drift. Nevertheless, [24] shows that the current model could be used to optimize the design of the switch to allow billions of cycles of operation, and the charging behavior over 10 s is consistent with the general trends predicted by the current model. This is probably because most of the charging occurs initially before it gradually diminishes.…”

“…2 and 3. Table I shows that the first-order charging/discharging time constants are of the order of 10 s, while the second-order charging/discharging time constants are of the order of 10 s. In this paper, the charging/discharging model is truncated after the second-order terms so that the experimental validation is truncated after 10 s. For high-cycle life tests [24] that last for many months or 10 s, it will be necessary to extract higher order model terms with correspondingly longer time constants. However, as mentioned before, higher order terms are increasingly more difficult to extract due to instrument noise and drift.…”

“…Experimentally, the dielectric charging phenomenon has been investigated by monitoring shifts in RF transmission characteristics [24], electrostatic and adhesion forces [14], capacitance-voltage characteristics [2]- [6], [8]- [11], [16], and current-voltage characteristics [7], [17], [18], [20], [25] with an increasing level of physical understanding. For example, charge transport was shown to be through the Frenkel-Poole mechanism [11].…”

Study of RF-MEMS Capacitive Shunt Switch for Microwave Backhaul Applications

“…To overcome the challenges faced in RF-MEMS switch, many of researchers have designed and analyzed different types of switches in which different techniques and switching parameters are considered like actuation voltage of switch and switching speed of switch. Piezoelectric actuation and spring constant parameters are responsible for actuation voltage whereas switching speed performance is improved by using different types of shape in bridges like meander, creating rectangular slot in bridge [15][16][17][18][19][20].…”

Characterization and reliability studies towards piezoelectrically actuated RF-MEMS switches

“…So the charging rate relates to the actuation voltage polarity [51]. Goldsmith et al reduce dielectric charging by using a unipolar-drive waveform of the polarity inducing less trapping than the other polarity for their dielectric material [52].…”