A Class of RF-MEMS Switches with Low Pull-In Voltage

This paper presents a class comprising three series of Ohmic switches, elucidating their design principles, simulation outcomes and the findings derived from measuring the initial batch of manufactured samples. The design of the membranes employs meandered beams to achieve a small actuation voltage. Initial electro-mechanical simulations, conducted within the Ansys Workbench environment, projected actuation voltages ranging from 5 to 8 Volts, whereas the measured values were marginally higher. The electromagnetic behavior of these devices demonstrated a generally qualitative concordance with simulations performed in the Ansys HFSS environment, exhibiting satisfactory performance in terms of return loss (<−20.22 dB) and isolation (<−14.86 dB) across the 5–30GHz frequency spectrum.