A LIQUID-METAL RF MEMS SWITCH WITH DC-TO-40 GHZ
PERFORMANCE
Prosenjit Sen and Chang-Jin “CJ” Kim
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
ABSTRACT
We report a low-loss shunt RF-MEMS switch based
on solid-to-liquid contact. This switch uses
electrowetting-on-dielectric (EWOD) actuation of a
liquid-metal (LM) droplet confined by a microframe,
allowing bounce-free operation and fast switching (60 µs).
Carrying the inherent solution LM provides for the
nagging contact reliability problem, this paper introduces
a two-droplet design that allows a low-loss RF
performance. We further describe the microfabrication
process, and report the test results. The switch
demonstrates better than 0.3 dB insertion loss and 20 dB
isolation up to 40 GHz, achieving significant
improvements over previous demonstrations.
INTRODUCTION
Reliability of solid-solid contacts becomes more
pronounced for MEMS microswitches as surface plays an
important role at microscale. The contact degradation [1]
due to arcing, welding and material transfer, which is
aggravated by contact bounce, limits the operational life
of these devices [2]. In order to solve these problems and
enhance reliability, liquid-solid contact has been used by
several microswitching technologies. One approach in
development of a LM based microswitch involves moving
the LM droplet to achieve switching by actuation
mechanisms such as electrothermal [3, 4], electrostatic [5,
6] and EWOD [7, 8]. These switches have demonstrated
no contact bounce [7], low switch-on latency (60 µs) [7],
fast signal rise/fall time (5 µs) [7], low contact resistance
[3], long-life [3] and capability to handle large currents (1
A) [3]. Though some of these devices have been tested
for RF performance, they have been mostly limited to 20
GHz and suffer from slow switching in the order of 1 ms.
First known implementation of a LM based
microswitch reporting RF performance was measured to
be 40 dB isolation and 0.1 dB insertion loss up to 2 GHz
[4]. In this implementation a LM droplet immersed in
water was actuated by thermal bubble generation.
However, presence of water in the off state would have
severely degraded the isolation at higher frequencies.
Another thermally actuated switch used thermal
expansion of air to break and move LM droplets [3]. The
use of air instead of water as a working fluid improved
their RF performance significantly. Better than 1 dB
insertion loss and 20 dB isolation were reported up to 18
GHz along with ~0.92 ms switching latency and 10 µJ
power requirement. Recently electrostatically actuated
LM capacitive switch was reported with 0.6 dB insertion
loss up to 20 GHz [9]. The isolation, however, degraded
to 10 dB at 15 GHz and was attributed to the slotline
mode arising due to the asymmetrical switch design. The
switch-on time was reported to be ~1 ms. Possibility of
using LM alloys for reflective switch using a LM alloy
Galinstan in Teflon solution [10] and reflective and
978-1-4244-2978-3/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE
absorptive switch using water have been reported [11]. In
these reports, however, the LM alloy or water was
manually pumped to achieve actuation. Less than 1.3 dB
insertion loss and 20 dB isolation were demonstrated up to
100 GHz. Integration of an actuation mechanism and
development of a legitimate microswitch still remained to
be demonstrated. Pumping of fluid also limited the
expected switching latency to 10 ms [11].
The previously reported EWOD-driven LM switch
[7], demonstrating bounce-free operation and low latency
in comparison to other LM microswitches, was for DC
applications only. Based on this actuation mechanism,
this paper presents design, fabrication and testing of a
low-loss, LM-based RF MEMS switch with DC-to-40
GHz performance.
ACTUATION MECHANISM
Liquid-metal actuation based devices have suffered
due to their slow actuation speeds, limited by the accuracy
with which the droplets have been formed (i.e., volume)
and deposited (i.e., position). We have previously
reported an actuation mechanism capable of high-speed
operation [7], illustrated in Figure 1. A microframe
structure, in this case made of SU-8, was used to hold the
droplet in position. High surface tension of the LM
droplet ensured that the interface position is defined
accurately. A larger opening at the back (i.e., between the
two left-most SU-8 posts in Figure 1) compared to the
front (i.e., between the two right-most SU-8 posts, where
the droplet is actuated to make contact with the signal
electrode) absorbed any variation in the deposited LM
volume, thus maintaining the interface position at the
front. These features allowed switch design with very
small switching gaps, e.g., 10 µm for 600 µm diameter
droplet.
SU-8 micro-frame Bias
Liquid-Metal Signal electrode
electrode
LM
A A’
Side-View
Liquid-solid Actuation AA’ Actuated
contact-line electrode contact-line
Figure 1: (Left & center) LM based EWOD switch
concept at no actuation. (Right) EWOD causes the contact
line to spread and make contact with the signal electrode.
The bias electrode grounded the LM droplet. When a
potential (100 V) was applied to the actuation electrode,
the droplet interface spread and made contact with the
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signal electrode. Using the initial regime of fast (0.5 m/s)
contact line motion of EWOD, 60 µs of switch-on latency
was demonstrated. Signal rise- and fall-time was better
than 5 µs with no contact bounce. The switch required 10
nJ of energy per cycle. It was also demonstrated that
dielectric charging has little ill effect on the actuation
mechanism for 105 cycles. We use this actuation
mechanism to design and demonstrate a low loss, LM RF
switch.
DEVICE DESIGN
The schematic of the design is shown in Figure 2.
The design is based on 20-180-20 µm coplanar waveguide
(CPW) on quartz. The design uses two mirror-imaged
microframe to accurately position one LM droplet on each
of the two ground planes of the CPW, biasing the droplets
at ground. When a potential is applied to the actuation
electrode, the actuated droplets short the signal lines to the
ground planes. Actuation electrode is capacitively
coupled to the LM droplet, which means that the actuation
electrode and the bias lines are grounded at RF
frequencies.
Tapered lines to obtain
SU-8 micro-frame 50Ω impedance
Ground Signal Ground
A’
LM
w using 200 Å Cr as adhesion layer. Isotropic etching of
A obtain a clean lift-off of the thick metal. For the actuation
Actuation electrodes are capacitively Length of unmatched
coupled to the grounded LM droplet impedance
Figure 2: Schematic of a LM based direct-contact shunt
switch. Two droplets are enclosed in mirror-imaged
microframes. When actuated, the contact-line spreads and
shunts the signal line to the ground planes.
Insertion loss of a switch is due to variation of the
switch impedance from the characteristic impedance.
Presence of actuation electrode requires a change in the
gap between the signal line and the ground plane. At first
sight it may seem that this discontinuity will lead to large
insertion loss. However, in our design the actuation
electrode, which is capacitively coupled to the ground
plane through the LM droplet, acts as an extension of the
ground plane at RF frequencies. To reduce losses the
signal line of the CPW is tapered in accord with the
actuation electrode to maintain 50 Ω impedance. This
minimizes the impedance mismatched section to the
pointed signal line extension where the actuated LM
droplet makes contact, as seen in Figure 2. Thus the
insertion loss in this design is from the capacitance due to
the impedance mismatched contact region and LM
droplet. The impedance mismatched contact region is 100
µm long, and the gap between the actuation electrode and
the signal line in this region is 5 µm. The minimum gap
between the signal line and the LM interface is 15 µm.
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Though the LM surface area is larger than the contact
region, most of the LM surface is significantly farther
away from the signal line. Thus the signal electrode is
responsible for most of the switch capacitance, and a
smaller contribution is expected from the LM droplets.
To minimize the effect of SU-8 microframe structures on
insertion loss, they were positioned away from the gaps of
the CPW.
The design of the microframe and its positioning with
respect to the contact region have been reported before
[7]. In the current device the opening at the back is 400
µm, and the opening at the front is 250 µm. SU-8
microframe is designed to be 400 µm high. The actuation
electrode length ‘w’ is 250 µm. At the ends of the
actuation electrode, the gap between the actuation
electrode and the signal line is 20 µm, forming a 20-180-
20 µm CPW. Prior to the contact region the gap between
the actuation electrode and the signal line is 17 µm, and
the signal line width is tapered to 146 µm to obtain a 50 Ω
17-146-17 µm CPW.
DEVICE FABRICATION
Device fabrication as shown in Figure 3 starts with a
700 µm thick fused silica substrate. 1000 Å chromium is
evaporated on the substrate and patterned lithographically
using a wet etchant. 8000 Å oxide, which isolates the bias
lines from the CPW, is deposited using plasma enhanced
chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) and etched using
RIE. CPW is formed by lift-off of 8000 Å thick gold
LOR-20B from MicroChem is used with AZ5214 to
dielectric, 3500 Å nitride is deposited using PECVD and
etched by RIE. Since LM’s attack most of the metals, a
protective layer is required at the contact regions. A layer
of 2000 Å Cr/Ni is deposited as the protective layer at the
contact regions using lift-off. To reduce hysteresis (static
friction which restricts contact line motion) and have a
reasonable actuation voltage, a thin layer of hydrophobic
coating of Teflon is used. Teflon is spin coated on the
wafer to obtain a 2000 Å film, which is then baked at 320
ºC for 3 hours. Further processing of Teflon-coated wafer
is difficult because adhesion of any film is poor on Teflon
that has a low surface energy. To successfully coat
photoresist (PR) we add surfactant to the PR. The Teflon
layer is patterned lithographically and etched in oxygen
plasma. After the PR is removed in acetone, the patterned
Teflon layer is baked again at 320 °C for 3 hours. To
allow building the microframe in subsequent steps, Teflon
covered area is minimized. For microframes, 400 µm
thick SU-8 is obtained in a single spin using SU-8 2150
from MicroChem. SU-8 is soft-baked at 95 °C for 3
hours. Temperature is always ramped up or down with a
rate of 60 °C / hr from 50 °C. A 300 s step exposure with
each step consisting of 30 s exposure and 20 s delay is
used, helping reduce surface hardening due to heat. After
45 min post exposure bake, the features are developed
with agitation. The Teflon layer is again baked in a
nitrogen environment at 200 °C for 3 hours. A lower
temperature is used to prevent SU-8 burning. Finally a
~400 µm diameter LM droplet is placed manually.

Fused silica substrate
Cr is evaporated and patterned lithographically
Deposit 8000 Å PECVD oxide and etch in RIE
Lift-off 8000 Å Au using lift-off resist
Deposit 3500 Å nitride and etch in RIE
Lift-off Cr/Ni to form contact regions
Teflon is spun coated and patterned using RIE
Lithographically define 400 µm SU-8 microframe
Figure 3: Process flow for device fabrication. The steps
show section AA’ from Figure 2.
It is important to note that this process deviates from
conventional process where Teflon layer is spin-coated
and patterned last. Conventionally this is done to protect
the Teflon layer from any further chemical processing
which may degrade its quality. For our case, however, this
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is not possible due to the presence of the tall SU-8
microstructures. These microstructures destabilize the
surfactant mixed PR film while spin coating, leading to
dewetting of the PR. Furthermore, capillary force causes
PR accumulation in the small spaces between the SU-8
microstructures. Teflon film is baked after every step to
recover from any degradation in the film quality during
processing. Figure 4 shows the final two steps where the
Teflon is patterned before the SU-8 microstructures are
fabricated.
Step 6 Step 7
Patterned Teflon SU-8 microframe
Figure 4: Teflon hydrophobic layer is coated and
patterned (shown left) before fabricating SU-8
microframe structures (shown right) to solve the issues
related to PR coating and lithography in presence of tall
microframe structures.
RESULTS
HP 8510C or Agilent E8361A network analyzer is
used to measure the device performance. A DC signal
form a National Instrument multifunctional DAQ,
amplified using a Trek amplifier, is used to actuate the
switch. Ground-signal-ground (GSG) probe tips from
Picoprobe are used to contact the CPW. To calibrate the
setup on wafer, thru-reflect-line (TRL) calibration was
performed.
The measured insertion loss is better than 0.3 dB up
to 40 GHz as seen in Figure 5. A good match is obtained
with the simulation result. The return loss is given by
ωCu Z 0
S11 = (1)
2
where Cu is the switch capacitance and Z0 is the
characteristic impedance. The switch capacitance is
calculated to be 14 fF by curve fitting the return loss.
Figure 5: Measured insertion loss and return loss. Switch
capacitance is calculated by curve fitting return loss.
 The switch is actuated using 100 V, and isolation is
measured. The switch isolation is given by
R +ω L
2 2 2
S 21 = (2)
(R + 0.5Z 0 )2 + ω 2 L2
where R and L are the switch resistance and impedance,
respectively. The isolation measured is better than 20 dB
up to 40 GHz (see Figure 6). The fitted value for the
inductance is 6.2 pH. The switch resistance (of two
contacts in parallel) of 1.32Ω extracted from curve fitting
is in good agreement with previously reported value of
2.35Ω for a single contact [7].
VNA
Drain DUT Source
Gate
DC
Figure 6: Measured isolation of the switch. Fitting a RL
model allows extraction of switch resistance and
inductance. (Inset) Schematic of the RF test setup.
SUMMARY
In this paper a contact LM droplet based RF switch
has been presented. The fast actuation using EWOD
combined with the accuracy provided by the microframe
led to a switch with bounce-less operation and less than 5
µs signal rise/fall time, as reported previously. To
implement for RF switches, a unique two-droplet design
has been developed to allow for a fast switch with low
loss. The design was optimized to minimize insertion loss.
The measured insertion loss was better than 0.3 dB and
the isolation better than 20 dB up to 40 GHz. These
values are a significant improvement over previously
reported values [3, 9].
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to thank Mr. James Jenkins and Mr.
Tao Wu for their valuable discussions about the project.
We would like to thank the staff at The Center for High
Frequency Electronics at UCLA for their help with the RF
experimental setup and the staff at UCLA Nanoelectronics
Research Facility (Nanolab) for their help with device
fabrication. This work was supported by DARPA
HERMIT program.
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