Design and analysis of a micromachined capacitive RF shunt switch with composite membrane

In this paper, a micromachined capacitive RF shunt switch with a novel metal/dielectric composite membrane is put forward. Two membrane structures are designed, and the performance analysis is carried out. It can be seen from the results that the composite membrane, which is stiffer than pure metal ones, may not only provide good DC isolation but also show better mechanical performance and help to prevent stiction. Besides, it has excellent radio frequency (RF) performance. These features made this micro switch an optimal solutions for the mobile RF applications, such as millimeter wave phase shifter MMIC and switched tunable filters.