K-band capacitive MEMS switches on GaAs substrate: Design, fabrication, and reliability

Abstract Shunt capacitive RF MEMS switches were developed on GaAs substrate, using a III–V technology process that is fully compatible with standard MMIC fabrication. The switches show an insertion loss lower than 0.8 dB and isolation better than 30 dB with resonance frequencies in K-band, according to the switch geometric parameters. Reliability limits due to dielectric charging were overcome by applying suitable fast bipolar actuation waveforms, making the developed switches good candidates for both redundancy (always on/off) and cycled applications.

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