Design of RF MEMS Capacitive Shunt Switch for Ku-Ka Band with Low Activation Voltage

Volume 8 Issue 2 December - February 2018

Research Paper

Design of RF MEMS Capacitive Shunt Switch for Ku-Ka Band with Low Activation Voltage

Piyush Bhatasana*, Dhaval Pujara**, Subhash Chandra Bera***

Assistant Professor, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Nirma University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.

Professor, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Nirma University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.

Scientist/ Engineer-SG, Space Applications Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India.

Bhatasana.P., Pujara.D and Bera. S.C (2018). Design of RF MEMS Capacitive Shunt Switch for Ku-Ka Band with Low Activation Voltage. i-manager's Journal on Electronics Engineering, 8(2), 27-32. https://doi.org/10.26634/jele.8.2.14137

Abstract

This paper proposes a design of zig-zag shaped Radio Frequency Micro Electro Mechanical System (RF MEMS) capacitive shunt switch with low spring constant and low activation voltage of the order of 4.7 V. In this design, there are two actuation electrodes and a separate signal line. Both electrodes and signal line are arranged such that, the whole arrangement isolates the Direct Current (DC) static charge and the input operating signal. The switch return-loss in upstate condition and the isolation in down-state condition were found more than 20 dB over a wide frequency band of 18 to 51 GHz.The switch yields insertion loss in up-state and return-loss in down-state condition, lower than 0.5 dB at same frequency band. The simulated results were verified through analytical method and are found to be in close agreement.