Asian Journal of Applied Science and Engineering

ISSN 2305-915X(p); 2307-9584(e)

Implementation of Low Voltage RF MEMS

Switch
with
Different
Material
for
Reconfigurable Antennas
1

Sardar Masud Rana , Rashed Al Amin , Md. Nasrul Hoque Mia , Samioul Hasan
4
5
Talukder , Md. Anzan-Uz-Zaman
1,3,5

Institute of Electronics, Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Department of EEE, University of Dhaka (Mymensingh Engineering College), Bangladesh

2,4

ARTICLE INFO
Volume 3
Number 4/2014
Issue 8
DOI: 10.15590/ajase/2014/v3
Received: July 22, 2014
Accepted: August 15, 2014
Revised: August 20, 2014
Published: September 01, 2014
E-mail for correspondence:
rashedoni.eee@gamail.com

ABSTRACT
RF MEMS technology can offer enhanced performance and have
potential prerogatives over the conventional solid-state devices. RF
MEMS Switches can be used because of their extensive electrical
characterization in order to the dynamic response in low voltage.
This paper presented an implemented design of a RF MEMS switch
using ANSYS. After comparing Silicon, Gold and Aluminium material
model, this paper also report the best RF MEMS switch model to
achieve low voltage, switching frequency and low insertion loss.
With applying same voltage on all models, this paper showed the
Gold material model gives the most suitable result.
Keywords: RF MEMS, ANSYS, Simple beam, Beam with
meanders, Switch.
Source of Support: Nil, Conflict of Interest: Declared.

How to Cite: Rana SM, Amin RA, Mia MN, Talukder SH and Anzan-Uz-Zaman M. 2014. Implementation of Low
Voltage RF MEMS Switch with Different Material for Reconfigurable Antennas Asian Journal of Applied Science and
Engineering, 3, 7-12.
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon work non-commercially, and
although the new works must also acknowledge & be non-commercial.

INTRODUCTION

icro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) are the integration of mechanical

elements, sensors, actuators and electronics on a common substrate using
integrated circuit process sequences. The increasing demand for more flexible
and low-power-consumption wireless systems which has generated the necessity for a
technology that can fabricate with low temperature process, friendly with CMOS, SiGe or
GaAs integration and reduce manufacturing factor with improve performance and
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ISSN 2305-915X(p); 2307-9584(e)

reliability. MEMS for radio frequency (RF) applications have provided an opportunity to
meet these requirements which is known as RF MEMS.
Due to the ability of MEMS technology for the fabrication of electro-mechanical element in
a single small device ranging from 1m to 1cm MEMs devices are rapidly used for sensor,
PIN diode and Ga As based FET switches. Aircraft-condition monitoring and distributedsatellite communication is the common applications of RF MEMS switches (Norvell, etl.
1999).
Reconfiguring of antenna is achieved through changing its frequency, polarization or
radiation characteristics by using Radio-Frequency Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (RFMEMS), PIN Diodes, Reactors and FETs. The switches showed good actuation on 15-20 V
which was observed in the experiment. According to bridge length such as 15 and 30
GHz,it is reported that the insertion loss better than 0.8 dB up to 30 GHz, and an isolation
of - 40 dB at the resonant frequency.
S.M. Rana et al. (2012) presented a RF MEMS model simulation with Silicon material. This
paper presented two new ANSYS 3D simulation models by Gold and Aluminium
material. After comparing these three material models with the same applied voltage from
3V to 7V it can be reported that, Gold material model provides the best suitable deflection.
The dimensions of meanders beam for all models are 4 m spacing, 4 mwidths, 56 x 60
m and 150 x 80 m.

GEOMETRY OF THE BEAM AND METHODOLOGY

Two different types of model have been simulated in ANSYS. Simple beam and beam with
meanders has been analyzed to investigate the stress, deflection, suspension and
frequency. For both model, various applied voltage is performed. Rana et al. (2012)
presented only Silicon material and beam with meanders for simulate RF MEMS switch
but in this paper two different models andthreedifferent materials are considered. The
geometry for the simple beam and beam with meanders has a height about 4m, a gross length
of 300m, a sequence length of 80m50m and the microwave t-line has 56m60m. the
actuation pad is smaller than the beam, so the actuation pad from the anchor is positioned
about 150 m. For both model actuation voltage and with declining electrode position
consequential pull-down voltage is around3Vto 7 V. To characterize the Silicon, Gold and
Aluminium material; density, tensile strength, tensile yield strength, tensile ultimate
strength, Youngs modulus, Poison ratio and Electrical conductivity properties have been
considered. Simple beam and beam with meanders models are shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2.

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ISSN 2305-915X(p); 2307-9584(e)

Fig. 1: Simple beam model geometry in ANSYS.

Fig. 1: Beam with meanders model geometry in ANSYS.

Appling same voltage and pressure on both model the deflection of the RF MEMS switch
model is shown in TABLE 1.
Table 1: Deflection of the both model with applied voltage and pressure.
Beam type
Voltage
Deflection
Pressure
Deflection
Simple Beam
5 Volt
0.205m
100 pa
0.120 m
Beam with meanders 5 Volt
2.85 m
100 pa
6.145 m
It is seem from output deflection, the beam with meanders model is better than the simple
beam model.

SIMULATION
Simple beam model and beam with meanders model has been conducted on
ANSYS 3D work
bench module. Each parts of the both beam model
has been defined in work bench. After
designing the model, meshing has been performed using brick meshing method. For solution
the initial and boundary conditions have been defined on beam model. After the end parts of
the beam model fixed, the different voltage is applied on all material beam model t
o study the
deflection and stress distribution. The deflection for Silicon, Aluminium and Gold material
models are shown in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 respectively.

Fig. 3: Deflection of Silicon material when 5V is applied.

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Fig. 4: Deflection of (a) Aluminium and (b) Gold material when 5V is applied.
The equivalent stress for all material with respect to the different voltage is shown in Fig. 5
and Fig. 6 respectively.

Fig. 5: Equivalent stress of Silicon material when applied voltage is 5V.

Fig. 6: Equivalent stress of (a) Aluminium material when applied voltage is 4V and (b)
Gold material when applied voltage is 5V.

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Asian Journal of Applied Science and Engineering

ISSN 2305-915X(p); 2307-9584(e)

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Deflection and equivalent stress for all material models with respect to different voltage is
shown in TABLE 2.
Table 2: Deflection and equivalent stress for all material model with respect to voltage.
Applied
Voltage (V)

3V
4V
5V
6V
7V

Silicon

Aluminium

Gold

Deflection Equivalent Deflection Equivalent Deflection Equivalent

(m)
Stress (Mpa)
(m)
Stress (Mpa)
(m)
Stress (Mpa)
0.76
0.983
1.229
1.135
1.8
1.171
2.85
2.0365
1.84
1.542
2.4
1.966
2.8536
4.528
2.273
3.067
2.8
3.8073
2.8611
3.157
3.015
3.588
3.2
3.899
2.89
3.811
3.932
3.85
4.23
4.135

The output graph for deflection with respect to voltage is shown in Fig. 7.

Fig. 7: Applied voltage vs deflection graph for all material.

The output graph for equivalent stress with respect to voltage is shown in Fig. 8.

Fig. 8: Applied voltage vs equivalent stress graph for all material.

From the above result it is seem that, the suitable applied voltage for the RF MEMS switch is 5V.In
addition, for 5V the deflection of silicon and Gold material is almost same but the spring constant
and suspension of Gold material is better than Silicon (Rebeiz). So, it can be reported that the Gold
material beam with meanders model is the most suitable model for RF MEMS switch.

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Asian Journal of Applied Science and Engineering

ISSN 2305-915X(p); 2307-9584(e)

CONCLUSION
MEMS based switches are and very attractive because these are small in size, low cost,
reliable, accurate and high performance. This paper presented an implemented design and
analyzing result of RF MEMS switch. The best suitable deflection is 2.856m and the
equivalent stress is 3.067MPa is achieved in Gold material model. By using ANSYS
simulation analysis for achieve low voltage, switching frequency, better suspension and
low insertion loss it had been showed the Gold material beam with meanders model for
5V applied voltage is most suitable for RF MEMS switch.

REFERENCE
Amit Mehta, Practical realization of dual S arm antenna for beam steering applications, Journal of
Zhejiang University SCIENCE A, November 2007, Volume 8, Issue 12, pp 1901-1904
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Punyasai, Simulation of Low Voltage RF MEMS Switch
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