Dual Beam Actuation of Piezoelectric AlN RF MEMS Switches Integrated with AlN Contour-mode Resonators

This work reports on piezoelectric Aluminum Nitride (AlN) based dual-beam RF MEMS switches that have been monolithically integrated with AlN contour-mode resonators. The dual-beam switch design presented in this paper intrinsically compensates for the residual stress in the deposited films, requires low actuation voltage (5-20 V), facilitates active pull-off to open the switch and fast switching times (1 to 2 μsec). This work also presents the combined response (cascaded S-parameters) of a resonator and a switch that were cofabricated on the same substrate. The response shows that the resonator can be effectively turned on and off by the switch. A post-CMOS compatible process was used for fabrication of both the switches and the resonators. The single-chip RF solution presented herein constitutes an unprecedented step forward towards the realization of compact, low loss and integrated multi-frequency RF front-ends.