This paper presents the design, fabrication and characterization of an RF MEMS switch. Low actuation voltage and high isolation of the switch were achieved by exploiting buckling and bending effects induced by well-controlled residual stress. The effects of residual stress on improving the switch performance have been investigated using both analytical and numerical methods. The proposed RF swi...

RF MEMS capacitive switches show great potential for use in wireless communication device. However, their widespread insertion in commercial products requires further improvements in their longterm reliability. Dielectric charging is one of the factors that impact switch reliability. Dielectric charging is understood to mean the accumulation of electric charge in the insulating dielectric layer...

A coplanar waveguide (CPW) single-pole double-throw (SPDT) X-band RF MEMS switch that can be actuated between states by applying a single voltage is introduced. Since a signal can be transmitted to one of the output ports without biasing, this has the potential to reduce the complexity of the required biasing network. The switch consists of a series and a shunt capacitive MEMS switch separated ...

This paper presents a low-actuation-voltage micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) capacitive shunt switch which has a very large bandwidth (4 GHz to 24 GHz). In this work, the isolation of MEMS switch is improved by adding two short high impedance transmission lines at the beginning and end of a coplanar waveguide (CPW). Simulating the switch demonstrates that a return loss (S11) is less than -...

Over the last decade, optical fiber-based forms of microscopy and endoscopy have extended the realm of applicability for many imaging modalities. Optical fiber-based imaging modalities permit the use of remote illumination sources and enable flexible forms supporting the creation of portable and hand-held imaging instrumentations to interrogate within hollow tissue cavities. A common challenge ...

The application of Micro Electro Mechnical Switch (MEMS) technology to Electronically Scanned Arrays (ESAs) provides the potential for significantly reducing the volume, weight, cost, and power consumption of antennas for both radar and communications systems. This paper addresses the current and projected status of Radio Frequency (RF) MEMS technology and assesses the potential benefits of MEM...

We present a detailed study on an active thermal recovery mechanism intended to counteract stiction in an electrostatically actuated RF-MEMS switch. A problemadapted, hierarchized analysis procedure based on a recently derived and presented finite element (FE) model has been applied to investigate the impact of different design and material parameters on the efficiency of this mechanism as well...

This paper presents a novel RF MEMS (Micro Electromechanical System) fixed-fixed switch for very fast switching. Using the obtained equations, the switching time depends on the stiffness and effective mass of the switch beam so that the switching time will be decreased by higher stiffness (spring constant) and lower effective mass. In new design, the suspension bridge is a three-layer beam so t...

This paper is the 3rd in a series of papers discussing characterization of a Micro-Electrical-Mechanical-System (MEMS) deformable mirror in adaptive optics. Here we present a comparison between a conventional adaptive optics system using a Xinetics continuous face sheet deformable mirror with that of segmented MEMS deformable mirror. We intentionally designed the optical layout to mimic that of...

Efficient merging of optical, microelectromechanical (MEM) and microelectronic systems offers significant potential for achieving the crooptoe1ectromechanical (MOEM) system functionality necessary to meet the performance needs of a number of emerging display, sensing, communications, and control applications. Central to realization of this potential will be the development of a set of microopti...