On the investigation of a reliable actuation control method for ohmic RF MEMS switches

Efficient control of RF MEMS switches is a very important issue as it is correlated to main failure mechanisms/modes such as the impact force and bouncing phenomena which degrade their dynamic performance and longevity. This paper presents the control of a specific ohmic RF MEMS switches under three different actuation modes, a tailored pulse optimization method based on Taguchi’s technique (voltage mode actuation control), resistive damping (charge mode actuation control) and finally the Hybrid actuation mode, which is a combination of the tailored pulse, the resistive damping and Taguchi’s optimization technique. Coventorware simulations indicate that under optimized Tailored pulse and Hybrid actuation modes, the impact velocity is reduced by around 90%, the initial impact force by around 75% and the maximum bouncing displacement during the release phase by around 95%, while the switching speed is increased by around 20% compared with the step pulse control mode. The resistive damping control mode is inappropriate for this type of switch and only partial improvement during the pull-down phase has been achieved. 2 Finally, a comparison between Hybrid and optimized tailored modes shows that Hybrid actuation mode excels with better switching characteristics and most importantly offers immunity to manufacturing and operation tolerances.