You are on page 1of 29

MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

INTRODUCTION

Compound solid state switches such as GaAs MESFETs and PIN


diodes are widely used in microwave and millimeter wave integrated
circuits (MMICs) for telecommunications applications including signal
routing, impedance matching networks, and adjustable gain amplifiers.
However, these solid-state switches have a large insertion loss (typically
1 dB) in the on state and poor electrical isolation in the off state. The
recent developments of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) have
been continuously providing new and improved paradigms in the field of
microwave applications. Different configured micro machined miniature
switches have been reported. Among these switches, capacitive
membrane microwave switching devices present lower insertion loss,
higher isolation, better nonlinearity and zero static power consumption. In
this presentation, we describe the design, fabrication and performance of
a surface micro machined capacitive microwave switch on glass substrate
using electroplating techniques.

Dept. of ECE -1- MESCE Kuttippuram


MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

SWITCH DESIGN AND OPERATION

The geometry of a capacitive MEMS switch is shown in Fig. 1.


The switch consists of a lower electrode fabricated on the surface of the
glass wafer and a thin aluminum membrane suspended over the electrode.
The membrane is connected directly to grounds on either side of the
electrode while a thin dielectric layer covers the lower electrode. The air
gap between the two conductors determines the switch off-capacitance.
With no applied actuation potential, the residual tensile stress of the
membrane keeps it suspended above the RF path. Application of a DC
electrostatic field to the lower electrode causes the formation of positive
and negative charges on the electrode and membrane conductor surfaces.
These charges exhibit an attractive force, which, when strong enough,
causes the suspended metal membrane to snap down onto the lower
electrode and dielectric surface, forming a low impedance RF path to
ground.

Dept. of ECE -2- MESCE Kuttippuram


MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

The switch is built on coplanar wave-guide (CPW) transmission


lines, which have an impedance of 50 that matches the impedance of the
system. The width of the transmission line is 160 ∝m and the gap
between the ground line and signal line is 30 ∝m. The insertion loss is
dominated by the resistive loss of the signal line and the coupling
between the signal line and the membrane when the membrane is in the
up position. To minimize the resistive loss, a thick layer of metal needs
be used to build the transmission line. The thicker metal layer result in a
Dept. of ECE -3- MESCE Kuttippuram
MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

bigger gap that reduces the coupling between signal and ground yet also
requires higher voltage to actuate the switch. To achieve a reasonable
actuation voltage, a 4-∝m-thick copper is used as the transmission line.
The glass wafer is chosen for the RF switch over a semi-conductive
silicon substrate since typical silicon wafer is too lossy for RF signal.
When the membrane is in the down position, the electrical isolation of the
switch mainly depends on the capacitive coupling between the signal line
and ground lines. The dielectric layer plays a key role for the electrical
isolation. The smaller the thickness and the smoother the surface of the
dielectric layer, the better isolation of the switch is. But there is another
trade-off here. When the membrane is pulled down, the biased voltage is
directly applied across the dielectric layer. Since this layer is very thin,
the electric field within the dielectric layer is very high. The thickness of
the dielectric layer should be chosen such that the electric field will never
exceed the breakdown electric field of the dielectric material. The silicon
nitride film has breakdown electric field as high as several mega-volts per
centimeter and can be utilized as dc block dielectric layer. In this project,
the thickness of the silicon nitride layer is chosen as 0.2 ∝m to
accomplish the dc block and RF coupling purpose.

The switches were fabricated by surface micro-machining


techniques with a total of four masking level. No critical overlay
alignment was required. Fig. 2 shows the essential process steps:

1. Ti/Cu seed layer deposition: The starting substrate was a 2-inch


glass wafer. A layer of titanium (0.05∝ m) and copper (0.15∝m) was
sputtered on the substrate as seed layer for electroplating.

Dept. of ECE -4- MESCE Kuttippuram


MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

2. Silicon nitride deposition: A layer of silicon nitride (0.2∝m)


was deposited and patterned as DC block by using PECVD and reactive
ion etch (RIE).
3. Copper electroplating: A photo resist layer was spin coated and
patterned to define the electroplating area. Then, a 4-∝m-thick copper
layer was electroplated to define the coplanar wave-guide and the posts
for the membranes.
4. Aluminum deposition: A layer of aluminum (0.4∝m) was
deposited by using electron beam evaporation and patterned to form the
top electrode in the actuation capacitor structure.
5. Release: The photo resist sacrificial layer was removed to
finalize the switch structure.

Dept. of ECE -5- MESCE Kuttippuram


MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

TEST RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

The probe station and network analyzer (HP 8510C) were used to
characterize the capacitive MEMS switch. Fig. 3 shows the micrograph
of a switch under test. When the switch is unactuated and the membrane
is on the up position, the switch is called in off-state. When the switch is

Dept. of ECE -6- MESCE Kuttippuram


MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

actuated and the membrane is pulled down, the switch is called in on-
state. The major characteristics of the switch are the insertion loss when
the signals pass through and the isolation when signals are rejected. In the
off-state the RF signal passes underneath the membrane without much
loss. In the on-state, between the central signal line and coplanar wave-
guide grounds exists a low impedance path through the bended
membrane. The switch will reflect the RF signal.

As shown in Fig. 4, in the off-state the switch has insertion loss of


approximately 0.1 dB at 10 GHz and 0.4 dB at 25 dB. Compared with
typical FET or PIN diode switches, which have about 1 dB insertion loss,
the MEMS switches have considerable advantages. For a multiswitch
system, the total loss is significantly lower when mechanical switches are
utilized. The return loss is better than 20 dB up to 25 GHz, which means
the MEMS switch has an excellent impedance match to 50.

The isolation and return loss of the switch in the on-state is shown
in Fig. 5. Due to the geometry of the capacitive switch, the signal cannot
be coupled to ground perfectly at the low frequency. As the frequency
becomes high, the coupling between the signal line and ground lines
makes the isolation of the switch approximately 15 dB at 20 GHz, which
is sufficient for switching RF signals.

The resonant frequency of 23.4 GHz was observed when the


membrane was in the down position. This means that the switch can be
equivalently modeled as a capacitor, inductor and resistor connected in
series between the signal and ground lines. Since the switch has a better
isolation around the resonant frequency, it can be designed such that the
Dept. of ECE -7- MESCE Kuttippuram
MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

desired frequency overlaps with the resonant frequency by adjusting the


geometry of the switch, i.e. the width of the membrane and the gap
between the membrane and the lower electrode.

The actuation voltage of the MEMS switch is about 50V.


The spring constant of the membrane and the distance between the
membrane and the bottom electrode determines the actuation voltage of
the switch. The spring constant of the membrane is mainly determined by
the membrane material properties, the membrane geometry, and the
residual stress in the membrane.

Dept. of ECE -8- MESCE Kuttippuram


MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

Dept. of ECE -9- MESCE Kuttippuram


MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

Dept. of ECE -10- MESCE Kuttippuram


MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

RF MEMS TECHNOLOGY

Currently, both series and shunt RF MEMS switch


configurations are under development, the most common being series
contact switches and capacitive shunt switches.

RF SERIES CONTACT SWITCH

An RF series switch operates by creating an open or short in the


transmission line, as shown in Figure 6. The basic structure of a MEMS
contact series switch consists of a conductive beam suspended over a
break in the transmission line. Application of dc bias induces an
electrostatic force on the beam, which lowers the beam across the gap,
shorting together the open ends of the transmission line . Upon removal
of the dc bias, the mechanical spring restoring force in the beam returns it
to its suspended (up) position. Closed-circuit losses are low (dielectric
and I2R losses in the transmission line and dc contacts) and the open-
circuit isolation from the ~100 μm gap is very high through 40 GHz.
Because it is a direct contact switch, it can be used in low-frequency
applications without compromising performance. An example of a series
MEMS contact switch, the Rockwell Science Center MEMS relay, is
shown in Error! Reference source not found.7.

Dept. of ECE -11- MESCE Kuttippuram


MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

Figure 6. Circuit equivalent of RF MEMS series contact switch.

Drive capacitor
Unbiased - OFF
Spring

RF line RF line

Biased - ON
Contact Anchor
shunt

Figure7. Structure and operation of MEMS dc series switch .

RF SHUNT CAPACITIVE SWITCH

A circuit representation of a capacitive shunt switch is shown in


Figure8. In this case, the RF signal is shorted to ground by a variable
capacitor. Specifically, for RF MEMS capacitive shunt switches, a
grounded beam is suspended over a dielectric pad on the transmission

Dept. of ECE -12- MESCE Kuttippuram


MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

line (see Figure9). When the beam is in the up position, the capacitance
of the line-dielectric-air-beam configuration is on the order of ~50 fF,
which translates to a high impedance path to ground through the beam
[IC=1/(ω C)]. However, when a dc voltage is applied between the
transmission line and the electrode, the induced electrostatic force pulls
the beam down to be coplanar with the dielectric pad, lowering the
capacitance to pF levels, reducing the impedance of the path through the
beam for high frequency (RF) signal and shorting the RF to ground .
Therefore, opposite to the operation of the series contact switch, the beam
in the up position corresponds to a low-loss RF path to the output load,
while the beam in the down position results in RF shunted to ground and
no RF signal at the output load (see Figure9). While the shunt
configuration allows hot-switching and gives better linearity, lower
insertion loss than the MEMS series contact switch, the frequency
dependence of the capacitive reactance restricts high quality performance
to high RF signal frequencies (5-100 GHz) , whereas the contact switch
can be used from dc levels.

Figure 8. Circuit equivalent of RF MEMS series contact switch.

Dept. of ECE -13- MESCE Kuttippuram


MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

Figure 9. Top and cross-sectional view of the Raytheon capacitive RF


MEMS switch

Dept. of ECE -14- MESCE Kuttippuram


MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

PRODUCTION AND MANUFACTURING ISSUES

PACKAGING

The primary production issue at this time is the lack of low-cost


packaging options. As will be discussed in section Error: Reference
source not found, the hermeticity requirement for RF MEMS switch
packaging leaves only high-cost, military- or space-grade traditional
packaging methods as appropriate for high reliability assurance.
Expensive packaging precludes the large-scale production needed for
extensive reliability testing and the low risk statistics for widespread
commercial sales.

AVAILABLE VENDORS

Significant manufacturing hurdles have the following


repercussions for spacecraft systems MEMS technology insertion. First,
there are few available vendors (currently one – Teravicta) and limited in-
stock product. Second, and most importantly, much reliability testing
remains to be completed and what has been done isn’t widely available
due to commercial proprietary concerns. For space flight applications,
this means that if one can find switches to purchase, the knowledge of
their physics of failure and, consequently, the ability to predict what
conditions may trigger them, is severely compromised. In-house
performance characterization and reliability testing, and the resulting
database of MEMS RF switch failure mechanisms, will enable
accelerated MEMS technology insertion.
Dept. of ECE -15- MESCE Kuttippuram
MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

GENERAL RELIABILITY CONCERNS

Because RF MEMS switches are at such a low maturity level, there


are reliability concerns at all levels – design, fabrication, post-
production/packaging, and system insertion/harsh environments. Before
addressing the failure modes, it is useful to point out that RF MEMS
switches are not subject to structural mechanical failure of the beam: the
beams don’t crack or break even after billions of cycles.

For low - medium power operation (<100 mW) the primary design
failures are based in materials choice and placement, increased resistance
at the metal contact in series switches and dielectric charging in shunt
switches.

METAL CONTACT RESISTANCE (Series Contact Switches)

Series contact switches tend to fail in the open circuit state with
wear. Even though the bridge is collapsing and making contact with the
transmission line, the conductivity of the contact metallization area
decreases until unacceptable levels of power loss are achieved. These
out-of-spec increases in resistivity of the metal contact layer over cycling
time may be attributed to frictional wear, pitting, hardening, non-
conductive skin formation, and/or contamination of the metal.
Decreasing the contact force during actuation can reduce pitting and
hardening. But tailoring the design to minimize the effect involves

Dept. of ECE -16- MESCE Kuttippuram


MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

balancing operational conditions (contact force, current, and


temperature), plastic deformation properties, metal deposition method,
and switch mechanical design. In other cases, the resistivity of the
contact increases with use due to the formation of a thin dielectric layer
on the surface of the metal. While this has been documented, the
underlying physical mechanisms are not currently well understood. As
the RF power level is raised above 100 mW, the aforementioned failures
are exacerbated by the increased temperature at the contact area and,
under hot-switching conditions, arcing and micro welding between the
metal layers.

DIELECTRIC BREAKDOWN (Shunt Capacitive Switches)

Shunt capacitive switches often fail due to charge trapping, both at


the surface and in the bulk states of the dielectric. Surface charge transfer
from the beam to the dielectric surface results in the bridge getting stuck
in the up position (increased actuation voltage). Bulk charge trapping, on
the other hand, creates image charges in the bridge metallization and
increases the holding force of the bridge to a value above its spring
restoring force. There are several actions that can be taken to mitigate
dielectric charging in the design phase, including choosing better
dielectric material and designing peripheral pull-down electrodes to
decouple the actuation from the dielectric behavior at the contact. Unlike
series contact switches, capacitive shunt switches do not experience hard
failures at RF power levels > 100 mW, as long as the bridge contact
metallization is thick enough to handle the high current densities.
However, RF power may be limited in some cases by a recoverable
failure, self-actuation. While not yet fully understood, it has been
Dept. of ECE -17- MESCE Kuttippuram
MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

observed that a capacitive shunt switch will self-actuate at 4W of RF


power (cold-switching failure) and experience latch-up (stuck in down
position) in hot-switching mode at 500 mW. Even though these
“failures” are recoverable – the switch operates normally if the RF power
is decreased below the latch-up value of 500 mW – they still illustrate a
lifetime consideration for high power applications.

RADIATION AND OTHER EFFECTS

There are some areas of RF MEMS reliability research that have not
been investigated in detail and are in need of immediate attention. For
example, RF MEMS series contact switches were thought to be immune
to radiation effects until JPL’s total dose gamma irradiation experiments
on the RSC MEMS contact switch showed design-dependent charge
separation effects in the pull-down electrode dielectric material, which
noticeably decreased the actuation voltage of the device. This
immediately begs the question of how radiation effects will accelerate the
dielectric material failure mechanisms of capacitive switches, which have
known dielectric failure mechanisms, or other series switches that utilize
dielectric material in their electrode structures. These and other issues,
such as reconfiguration (does a switch recover from long-duration
continuous actuation?) and long lifetime ruggedness must be investigated
in detail to ensure robust and reliable design of RF MEMS devices.

PACKAGING

Beyond the design and production phases, reliability concerns can


be introduced in post-production (such as release stiction fails) and, most
Dept. of ECE -18- MESCE Kuttippuram
MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

importantly, in packaging. Several factors must be considered before


choosing a package for RF MEMS switches. First and foremost, RF
MEMS performance will quickly degrade in the presence of contaminants
and humidity. Therefore, the initial package criterion is hermeticity.

A traditional approach would involve dicing the wafer, releasing the


device, attaching the substrate to the package base, and attaching the lid
with a hermetic seal, incorporating baking and vacuum conditions as
necessary to ensure no out gassing after seal. With the many options
available for microelectronics packaging, a suitable hermetic package can
be found that minimizes thermal-mismatch induced stresses and provides
low-loss RF electrical connections. Although it is possible to
successfully package MEMS RF switches in this manner, it is impractical
for two reasons: it’s prohibitively expensive for large-scale production
and manipulating released devices is tedious. In response to these
difficulties, the current trend is toward wafer-level packaging, which
reduces cost and mitigates the structural fragility by bonding the package
around the released switch in the production phase, before dicing and
subsequent handling. Wafer-level packaging for RF MEMS is a topic of
intense study. Work is currently underway to find a suitable bonding
method that provides adequate hermetic seal without out gassing
contaminants into the body of the package or thermally damaging the
delicate MEMS structures.

Dept. of ECE -19- MESCE Kuttippuram


MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

RELIABILITY AND RADIATION TALL TENT POLES

The failure mechanisms outlined in section Error: Reference source


not found determine the specific reliability concerns for each mission
scenario. In general, one must address both the operational and
environmental stresses imposed on the device throughout the lifetime of
the mission. The only operational stress addressed here will be high RF
power, since RF MEMS technology is not yet mature enough to consider
system-level behaviors.

OPERATIONAL

Power Handling

As outlined above, reliable operation of RF MEMS switches at


power levels above 500 mW cannot be guaranteed at this time.
Capacitive shunt switches experience recoverable failures at this level,
while series contact switches may permanently fail in the short circuit
configuration if hot switched above 100 mW. Hot-switching series
contact switches at any power is not recommended. Thermal dissipation
precautions in packaging are unnecessary, as RF MEMS do not generate
sufficient thermal energy.

Dept. of ECE -20- MESCE Kuttippuram


MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

TECHNOLOGY EVOLUTION IN NEAR TERM

The fundamental architecture for RF MEMS switches, both contact


series and capacitive shunt, is stable and likely to persist through
commercial insertion. Design subtleties will be adjusted to optimize
performance (i.e. more robust metal contact) and increase reliability, but
will likely be considered revisions rather than a new design. Since there
is no set packaging method, the end product has yet to be fully realized.

Dept. of ECE -21- MESCE Kuttippuram


MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

COMPARISION OF MEMS SWITCHES WITH SOLID


STATE SWITCHES

RF switches are used in a wide array of commercial, aerospace, and


defense application areas, including satellite communications systems,
wireless communications systems, instrumentation, and radar systems. In
order to choose an appropriate RF switch for each of the above scenarios,
one must first consider the required performance specifications, such as
frequency bandwidth, linearity, power handling, power consumption,
switching speed, signal level, and allowable losses.

Traditional electromechanical switches, such as wave-guide and


coaxial switches, show low insertion loss, high isolation, and good power
handling capabilities but are power-hungry, slow, and unreliable for long-
life applications. Current solid-state RF technologies (PIN diode- and
FET- based) are utilized for their high switching speeds, commercial
availability, low cost, and ruggedness. Their inherited technology
maturity ensures a broad base of expertise across the industry, spanning
device design, fabrication, packaging, applications/system insertion and,
consequently, high reliability and well-characterized performance
assurance. Some parameters, such as isolation, insertion loss, and power
handling, can be adjusted via device design to suit many application
needs, but at a performance cost elsewhere. For example, some
commercially available RF switches can support high power handling,
but require large, massive packages and high power consumption.

Dept. of ECE -22- MESCE Kuttippuram


MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

In spite of this design flexibility, two major areas of concern with


solid-state switches persist: breakdown of linearity and frequency
bandwidth upper limits. When operating at high RF power, nonlinear
switch behavior leads to spectral regrowth, which smears the energy
outside of its allocated frequency band and causes adjacent channel
power violations (jamming) as well as signal to noise problems. The
other strong driving mechanism for pursuing new RF technologies is the
fundamental degradation of insertion loss and isolation at signal
frequencies above 1-2 GHz.

By utilizing electromechanical architecture on a miniature- (or


micro-) scale, MEMS RF switches combine the advantages of traditional
electromechanical switches (low insertion loss, high isolation, extremely
high linearity) with those of solid-state switches (low power
consumption, low mass, long lifetime). shows a comparison of MEMS,
PIN-diode and FET switch parameters. While improvements in insertion
loss (<0.2 dB), isolation (>40 dB), linearity (third order intercept
point>66 dBm), and frequency bandwidth (dc – 40 GHz) are remarkable,
RF MEMS switches are slower and have lower power handling
capabilities. All of these advantages, together with the potential for high
reliability long lifetime operation make RF MEMS switches a promising
solution to existing low-power RF technology limitations.

Dept. of ECE -23- MESCE Kuttippuram


MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

ADVANTAGES OF MEMS SWITCHES

(1) Small size :


Semiconductor manufacturing techniques used in the batch fabrication of
micro systems, these systems process sizes ranging from micro meters to
a few milli meters.

(2) Low Cost :


Mems technology allows complex electromechanical systems to be
manufactured using batch fabrication techniques, allowing cost of
switches to be put in party with that of integrated circuits. Much of labour
involved in packing and assembly of such a system would simply
disappear.

(3) Low power consumption :


The mems switches are power efficient. The power losses in data
transmission and also the time lag are eliminated because the switches are
made next to control circuitory in the same chip.

(4) High isolation :


Isolation of mems switches in the range 1-40GHz is very high than the
other switches.

(5) Ability to be integrated with other electronic devices with


excellent linearity.

Dept. of ECE -24- MESCE Kuttippuram


MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

CONCLUSION

MEMS capacitive switches of RF applications show low


insertion losses in the OFF state and high isolation in the ON state. The
micro machine switches have applications in phased antenna arrays, in
MEMS impedance matching networks, and in communication
applications.

Dept. of ECE -25- MESCE Kuttippuram


MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

REFERENCES

1. IEEE Instrumentation and Management magazine, March 2003,


“MEMS Switches” (Page No. 12).
2. Gopinath A and Rankain J B “GaAs FET RF Switches”, IEEE
Trans. On Electron Dev., Vol.ED-32, No.7,July 1985.
3. Cavery,R.H. “Distortion of Off-State Arsenide MESFET
Switches”, IEEE Trans. On Microwave Theory and Tech. Vol.41,No.8,
August 1993.

Dept. of ECE -26- MESCE Kuttippuram


MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

ABSTRACT

A surface micro machined capacitive switch has been designed and


fabricated on a glass substrate. The switch is constructed of a thin
metallic membrane crossing over an electroplated coplanar wave-guide
transmission line. The electrostatic actuation is utilized as the switching
mechanism. The actuation voltage is around 50V. The switch showed low
insertion loss of 0.1 dB at 10 GHz and 0.4 dB at 25 dB, and isolation of
15dB at 20GHz. This device offers a potential application in
telecommunication, phase antenna array system, etc.

Dept. of ECE -27- MESCE Kuttippuram


MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I extend my sincere thanks to Prof. P.V.Abdul Hameed, Head


of the Department for providing me with the guidance and facilities for
the Seminar.

I express my sincere gratitude to Seminar coordinator


Mr. Manoj K, Staff in charge, for his cooperation and guidance for
preparing and presenting this seminar.

I also extend my sincere thanks to all other faculty members of


Electronics and Communication Department and my friends for their
support and encouragement.

Renjith P.

Dept. of ECE -28- MESCE Kuttippuram


MEMS Switches Seminar Report ‘03

CONTENTS

• INTRODUCTION

• SWITCH DESIGN AND OPERATION

• TEST RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

RF MEMS TECHNOLOGY

PRODUCTION AND MANUFACTURING ISSUES

• GENERAL RELIABILITY CONCERNS

TECHNOLOGY EVOLUTION IN NEAR TERM

COMPARISION OF MEMS SWITCHES WITH SOLID STATE

SWITCHES

• ADVANTAGES OF MEMS SWITCHES

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

Dept. of ECE -29- MESCE Kuttippuram

You might also like