Electro-thermally Actuated RF MEMS Switch For

Wireless Communication
Xiuhan Li, Leijie Lang, Jian Liu, Yu Xia, Li Yin, Jin Bin Hu, Dongming Fang, Haixia(Alice) Zhang*

Xiuhan Li, Li Yin, Jinbin Hu
School of Electronics and Information Engineering
Beijing Jiaotong University
Beijing, China
E-mail: lixiuhan@bjtu.edu.cn

Leijie Lang, Jian Liu, Yu Xia,Dongming Fang,
Haixia Zhang
National Key Laboratory of Nano/Micro Fabrication
Technology, Institute of Microelectronics
Peking University, Beijing, China
E-mail: zhanghx@ime.pku.edu.cn



AbstractThis paper presents a lateral resistive-contact
electrothermally actuated MEMS switch for wireless
communication applications. It is manufactured on a standard
low-resistivity substrate, and its RF performance was improved
by suspending the structures 25m from the substrate, which is
good for future integration with active devices in the system-on-
chip concept. The switch is driven by a metal electrothermal
actuator, which can generate large displacements and contact
forces at lower temperatures than polysilicon electrothermal
actuators. Measurement results show that the RF MEMS switch
have good performance under DC of 0.9 to 1.1A from 0-20GHz.

KeywordsRF MEMS; Switch; MetalMump; Thermal
actuation
I. INTRODUCTION
IRELESS communication has led to an explosive
growth of emerging consumer and military applications
of radio frequency (RF), microwave and millimeter
wave circuits and systems. Using of highly integrated RF
front-ends, featuring small size, low weight, high performance
and low cost is the future trend for personal and ground
communication systems [1].

Some off-chip bulky passive
components have become limiting for the chip scaling down.
MEMS technology is now rapidly emerging as an enabling
technology to yield a new generation of high-performance RF-
MEMS passives to replace these off-chip passives in wireless
communication systems. [2]
RF MEMS switches have great potential in being integrated
into a RF system. Capacitive shunt switches have been mainly
used at the frequencies above 10-15GHz [3], and lower
frequency down to 7GHz[4]. DC-contact switches, based on a
metalmetal contact, operate from DC to 3040 GHz,
covering perfectly the ground wireless communication bands,
and some applications under 6 GHz. Most resistive-contact
switches, was actuated by electrostatically actuation method.
While a number of lateral movement switches are
electrothermally actuated.[5] Through MetalMUMP
[6]
process,
high aspect ratio structures (Thick elements with small gap
and small series resistance) provide a good switch contact
under moderate actuation voltage. Because of using low-
resistivity substrates, it can not only reduce the substrate loss
but also be a good solution for the integration of MEMS with
IC, and bring the concept of SOC (system on chip) into reality.
II. MECHANICAL DESIGN FOR RF MEMS SWITCH
2.1 Working Principle of RF MEMS switch
A kind of resistive contact, in plane, electrothermal-actuated
series MEMS switch for operation was put forward in this
paper. Figure 1 illustrates the working principle of lateral
thermal actuated MEMS switch, (a) is the off state, (b) is the
on state. The MEMS switch is composed of three parts ie.
thermal actuation structure, isolation structure, and contact
points. Thermal actuation structure are a group of V shape
beams, when apply voltage on the beam, it will be heated and
generate lateral deformation. Under the actuation of the beam,
the contact point will touch the signal line, and it will be on
the conducting state (Fig. 1(b)).

2.2 Thermal Driven Structure
Thermal Driven structure shows good performance in above
points. Hence the thermal driven method was applied in this
paper, which controlling the on and off state for RF MEMS
switch.
In Fig.3, the V shaped switch consists of three pairs of
symmetrical beams with the ends connected to the anchors.
The whole structure constructed as an electrical loop. The
W
* Contact author

(a) (b)
Figure 1. Work principle of thermal actuated RF MEMS switch
497
Proceedings of the 2010 5th IEEE International
Conference on Nano/Micro Engineered and Molecular Systems
January 20-23, Xiamen, China
978-1-4244-6545-3/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE
thickness (H), length (L) and width (W) of the beam were
defined as parameters. The thermal driven structure suspended
on a 25m deep trench and the small angle between the beams
and the anchor is . Table 1 gives the material and dimensions
of the thermal driven structure.



2.3 Simulation Results By ANSYS
FEM method by ANSYS was used to analyze the thermal
driven structure. The effects of temperature-dependent
material properties and thermal radiation were neglected. The
boundary was set at the room environment temperature of
273K at the end of the beams and the voltage was applied on
the ends. The end of the beam was fixed and current flow
though the beam to generate heat. Solid98 element type was
used to simulate the coupled thermal-electric-structural
response. The simulation uses the direct method to evaluate
the actuator. The structure parameter for mechanical model is
according to table1. Figure 3 is the simulation results for
driven voltage vs displacement for thermal driven structure. It
indicates that the displacement increased with the driven
voltage.

Figure 4 shows the V shape structure deformation under the
voltage of 0.03Vand the contact point can achieve the
displacement of more than 4um.

III. FABRICATION METHOD
This device is fabricated on a low resistivity substrate (1
2m), the suspended switch is gained through etching of a
25m deep trench. The device has been manufactured using
MetalMumps technology, a recent commercially available
multi project wafer process[6]. The vertical process flow for
the switch is given in Fig.5[6]. Firstly A 2Pm thick oxide
(Isolation Oxide) is grown on the surface of the starting silicon
wafer. This is followed by deposition of a 0.5Pm thick
sacrificial phosphosilicate glass (PSG) layer (Oxide 1). In
Fig.5 (b), The PSG(Oxide1) layer is patterned and wet
chemical etching is used to remove the unwanted sacrificial
PSG. Then a 0.35Pm layer of silicon nitride (Nitride 1) and a
0.7Pm layer of doped polysilicon is deposited separately and
connectively. Here, polysilicon can be used for resistors,
additional mechanical structures, and cross-over electrical
routing. After poly being patterned, a second 0.35Pm layer of
silicon nitride (Nitride 2) is deposited Fig. 5(e). As shown in
Fig.5 (f), two layers of Nitride were patterned. Following a
second sacrificial layer (Oxide 2), 1.1mm of PSG, is deposited
and annealed at 1050C for 1 hour. The wafer is patterned
with thick photoresist and Nickel is electroplated to a nominal
thickness of 20um into the patterned resist stencil. In Fig.5(j),
the wafer is patterned with photoresist and a 1-3Pm gold layer
(Sidewall Metal) is electroplated. The sacrificial PSG layer
and the oxide layer are removed by wet etching. Finally, a
KOH silicon etch is used to form a 25um deep trench as
shown in Fig5(l).

Fig. 4. Simulation results for thermal driven structure under the voltage of
0.03V

Figure 3. Simulation results for Driven voltage vs displacement for thermal
Driven Structure.
TABLE I
GEOMETRIC CONFIGURATION OF THE V SHAPE THERMAL DRIVEN
STRUCTURE ACCORDING TO FIG.1
Material Length Width
Ni 800um 8um
Space Thickness
1.07 7um 20um


Figure 2. Schematic configuration of the V shape thermal driven structure
498



The SEM image for RF MEMS switch is shown in Fig.4.
The MEMS switch is composed of three parts ie. thermal
actuation structure, isolation structure, and contact points.

IV. MEASUREMENT RESULTS
According to our DC measurement results, the switch was
turned on under the driven current of 1.1A. Network analyzer
was used to measure the S parameter for the on and off state
for RF MEMS switch in the frequency range of 0-20GHz.
Measurement results for S21 and S11 were showed in Fig.7-10.
It can be seen that the switch shows good isolation and
transmission performance in 0-20GHz.






Figure 7. S21 Measurement Results for on state MEMS Switch

(i): The photoresist stencil is then chemically removed

(j): Gold Over Plating Stencil Patterned and Gold Over Plating

(k): Removed the PSG and the oxide layer

(l): a KOH silicon etch is used to form a 25Pm deep trench in the silicon
substrate
Figure 5. Cross section overview for the process flow of RF MEMS switch



Figure 8. S11 Measurement Results for on state MEMS Switch

(e): Nitride 2 Deposited

(f): Nitride(s) Patterned

(g): A second sacrificial layer (Oxide 2), 1.1Pm of PSG, is deposited

(h): The wafer is patterned with thick photoresist. Nickel is electroplated to
a nominal thickness of 20Pm into the patterned resist stencil.

(a): A 2um thick oxide and 0.5um thick sacrificial PSG (Oxide 1)is grown
and deposited

(b): Oxide 1 Patterned

(c): A 0.35Pm layer of silicon nitride (Nitride 1) is deposited, followed
immediately by the deposition of a 0.7Pm layer of polysilicon.

(d): Poly Patterned
(a) (b)

Figure 6. SEM picture for RF MEMS switch.(a): Full view of RF MEMS
switch; (b): Contact point of switch.
V shape thermal
driven structure
G

S

G
Isolation structure
499


V. CONCLUSION
A lateral resistive-contact electrothermally actuated MEMS
switch for wireless communication applications. It is
manufactured on a standard low-resistivity substrate, and its
RF performance was improved by suspending the structures
25m from the substrate, which is good for future integration
with active devices in the SOC concept. The switch is driven
by a metal electrothermal actuator, which can generate large
displacements and contact forces at lower temperatures than
polysilicon electrothermal actuators. Measurement results
show that the RF MEMS switch have good performance under
DC of 0.9 to 1.1A from 0-20GHz.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This paper was supported by National Science Foundation
of China (60706031), The National High Technology
Research and Development Program of China
(2006AA04Z359), Project supported by the Beijing Jiaotong
University, Project supported by the Talents Project of
Beijing Jiaotong University and China Postdoctoral Science
Foundation (200902004).
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Figure 10. S21 Measurement Results for off state MEMS Switch


Figure 9. S11 Measurement Results for off state MEMS Switch
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