RF Switch Device

Introduction
The basic idea for doing Intellisuite simulation was to understand the working of RF Device. The idea was taken from the documentation and earlier experiments were practiced thoroughly.

Fig 1 RF Device The above diagram shows the RF device, which is used to understand electromechanical analysis for a RF switch device. It contains 1. Lower (green) part shows the silicon base. 2. The layer above the silicon base is silicon nitride Si3N4 (Yellow). 3. On the right side of the silicon nitride layer aluminium layer (pink & blue) this will detect the deformation of the beam. The beam is separated from the silicon base by an air gap of 1.8m. when a high potential or voltage is given to the system the beam will deform in such a way that the aluminium contact which is at the end of the beam, comes into contact and start conducting.

The potential we are giving is between 0V to 60V. This is done to check the maximum displacement of the beam in z-direction. Since we are giving positive potential the beam should move down and make contact with other aluminium part.

Procedure
Step 1 Start the 3D builder to build the mechanical model. The outline of the 3D builder looks as below:

Fig2 3D Builder

Step 2 The software is user friendly and easy to learn. All the palettes are on the main 3D Builder page.

Click on to Drawing --Preferences. Preference window is viewed as follows:

Fig3 Preference settings Step 3 Change the grid spacing to 10m from 1 m, which can reduce the virtual size of the GUI, and also change the viewable dimension to 200 which increases the region of working. There should be 6 layers, one for silicon base, two for silicon nitride, one for the air gap, and for the aluminium region. Step 4 Creation of level 0 to level 5. The level 0 is the silicon base which is of the height 5m. So, first click on to the... a. Modify -- Height.

Input the value 5 m. b. Click on to: Rectangle palette and draw a rectangle from the point (-60, -10) to (50, 10) and (50,-10) to (60, 10) The level 1 is the silicon nitride base which is of the height 1 m. The value is present by default. Rest all the dimensional properties are same as the level 0 so, click the copy level button in the level window. Similarly, we have to create level 2 & 3. Level 4 has three elements a. Click on level 4 in level window and modify the height as 0.75 m. Construct three elements from the given information 1. (-60,-10) to (40,10) 2. (40,-10) to (50,10) 3. (50,-10) to (60,10) The level 5 is same as level 4 just the height is to be modified to 0.5 m. Entity definition: To assign the material properties for an electromechanical system, all elements are grouped into mesh and grouped according to the composition material. Entity 1(silicon base). Entity 2(silicon nitride dielectric layers). Entity 3(aluminium transmission line). Entity 4(pink).

Finally, after assigning the entity save the file, after saving the file output is done. Electromechanical Analysis:

analysis

of

For the electromechanical analysis some parameters has to be changed:

1. Simulation type 2. Material properties 3. Boundary conditions 4. Perform Analysis 5. Display results 6. Save results Simulation type- We have to select the type of simulation whether it is static or dynamic. We chose static here. Material properties- As we are using different materials, so the material properties should be adjusted as it will be having default values. Boundary conditions- Since the leftmost end of the beam should be fixed and the bottom face also should be fixed as shown in the diagram.

Load settings: After the parts are fixed, load (V) is given to the system. Now we have to check for the mesh which should be less than 7.5 m. Now, after all the required settings static analysis is started. The output of the static analysis is as shown

The graph between the vertical displacement i.e. in z direction vs iteration is as shown under:

The graph between the vertical displacement i.e. in z direction vs iteration is as shown under:

References:

1.

IntelliSuite User Training Guide

Tools for the MEMS professional

2.

IntelliSuite User Guide

Tools for the MEMS professional