Laterally Movable Triple Electrodes Actuator toward Low Voltage and Fast Response RF-MEMS Switches

A novel actuator toward a low voltage actuation and fast response in RF-MEMS (radio frequency micro-electro-mechanical systems) switches is reported in this paper. The switch is comprised of laterally movable triple electrodes, which are bistable by electrostatic forces applied for not only the on-state, but also the off-state. The bistable triple electrodes enable the implementation of capacitive series and shunt type switches on a single switch, which leads to high isolation in spite of the small gap between the electrodes on the series switch. These features of the actuator are effective for a low voltage and fast response actuation in both the on- and off-state. The structure was designed in RF from a mechanical point of view. The laterally movable electrodes were achieved using a simple, low-cost two-mask process with 2.0 µm thick sputtered aluminum. The characteristics of switching response time and actuation voltage were 5.0 µs and 9.0 V, respectively.