This paper presents numerical analysis of pull-in voltage for contact microelectromechanical (MEMS) switch in switched-line phase shifter application. The contact MEMS switch consists of a fixed-fixed thin metal membrane called the “bridge” suspended over a broken center conductor of coplanar waveguide (CPW). The center conductor sandwiched by a pair of symmetrical off-center drive capacitors that form two electrostatic actuators. A lumped-model for two coupled parallel-plates actuators is applied to describe the electromechanical behavior and the pull-in phenomenon in the contact MEMS switch. And a static mechanical model including the residual stress effects is developed to provide the effective stiffness coefficient for the prediction of pull-in voltage in a contact MEMS switch with uniform bridge width. As a theoretical basis, lower pull-in voltage can be achieved by optimizations on structure and material of bridge.

Date Published: 8 December 2004
PDF: 4 pages
Proc. SPIE 5774, Fifth International Conference on Thin Film Physics and Applications, (8 December 2004); doi: 10.1117/12.607900

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5774:
Fifth International Conference on Thin Film Physics and Applications
Junhao Chu; Zongsheng Lai; Lianwei Wang; Shaohui Xu, Editor(s)