A folded leg Ka-band RF MEMS shunt switch with amorphous silicon (a-Si) sacrificial layer

Design and fabrication of a folded leg Ka-band RF micro electro mechanical systems (RF MEMS) is presented. The mechanical design is carried out to observe minimum permanent deformation on the MEMS bridge after our in-house MEMS packaging process temperature treatment (200 °C). On the other hand, the actuation voltage is aimed as <30 V and measured as 24–25 V before thermal treatment. Moreover, the switch shows 28–29 V actuation voltage after thermal treatment. The fabricated switch shows −0.4 dB insertion loss for the up state position at Ka-band, before and after heat treatment. The switch is fabricated on quartz wafer using an in-house surface micromachining process with a new amorphous silicon sacrificial layer structure.