• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.147-150
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• 2005

Low actuation voltage and no contact stiction are the important factors to apply MEMS RF switches to mobile devices. Conventional electrostatic MEMS RF switches require several tens of voltages for actuation. In this paper we propose PAS MEMS RF switch which adopt PZT actuators and seesaw cantilevers to meet the above requirements. The fundamental structures of PAS MEMS switch were designed, optimized, and fabricated. Through the developed processes PAS SPDT MEMS RF switches were successfully fabricated on 4" wafers and they showed good electrical properties. The driving voltage was less than 5 volts. And the insertion loss was -0.5dB and the isolation was 35dB at 5GHz. The switching speed was about 5kHz. So these MEMS RF switches can be applicable to mobile communication devices or wireless multi-media devices at lower than 6GHz.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.320-327
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• 2010

In this paper, electrostatically actuated direct contact type RF MEMS switches have been designed and demonstrated. As driving structures of the switch, cantilever, bridge, and torsion spring beam structures are used and the actuation voltage characteristics of the switches have been compared and discussed. The designed RF switches are fabricated with the surface micromachining technology using the electroplated gold and nickel structures. The characteristics of the fabricated switches are measured and analyzed. The switch, which is fabricated using the 510 ${\mu}m$-length bridge structure with the thickness of 1.5 ${\mu}m$, is actuated with 15 V driving voltage. The insertion losses are less than 0.2 dB over the measured frequency ranges from 0 to 20 GHz and the isolations are more than 30 dB.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.166-176
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• 2007

Radio frequency (RF) microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have been pursued for more than a decade as a solution of high-performance on-chip fixed, tunable and reconfigurable circuits. This paper reviews our research work on RF MEMS switches and switching circuits in the past five years. The research work first concentrates on the development of lateral DC-contact switches and capacitive shunt switches. Low insertion loss, high isolation and wide frequency band have been achieved for the two types of switches; then the switches have been integrated with transmission lines to achieve different switching circuits, such as single-pole-multi-throw (SPMT) switching circuits, tunable band-pass filter, tunable band-stop filter and reconfigurable filter circuits. Substrate transfer process and surface planarization process are used to fabricate the above mentioned devices and circuits. The advantages of these two fabrication processes provide great flexibility in developing different types of RF MEMS switches and circuits. The ultimate target is to produce more powerful and sophisticated wireless appliances operating in handsets, base stations, and satellites with low power consumption and cost.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.07b
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• pp.652-655
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• 2004

RF MEMS is a miniature device or an array of integration devices and mechanical components and fabricated with If batch-processing techniques. RF MEMS application area are in phased arrays and reconfigurable apertures for defence and telecommunication systems, switching network for satellite communication, and single-pole double throw switches for wireless application. Recently, RF MEMS switches have been developed for the application to the milimeter wave system. RF MEMS switches offer a substantilly higher performance than PM diode or FET switches. In this paper, SPDT(single-pole-double-throw) switch are designed to use 10 GHz. Actuation voltage and displacement are simulated by tool. And stress and distribution are simulated.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.429-434
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• 2004

In this paper, we designed a reconfigurable slot antenna using sequentially voltage-applied RF MEMS switches. In order to obtain pull-in voltage and maximum stress of the MEMS switches, the switch structures in accordance with airgap height was analyzed by ANSYS simulation A actuation voltage of MEMS switches can be determined by switch geometry and airgap height between a movable plate and a bottom plate. The designed lengths of MEMS switches were 240 $\mu\textrm{m}$, 320 $\mu\textrm{m}$, 400 $\mu\textrm{m}$, respectively and the airgap was 6$\mu\textrm{m}$. The total size of the designed slot antenna was 10 mm x 10 mm and the slot length and width were 500 $\mu\textrm{m}$ and 200 $\mu\textrm{m}$, respectively. The length and size of the CPW feedline were 5 mm and 30-80-30 $\mu\textrm{m}$, respectively. and then the size of the CPW in the slot was 50-300-150 $\mu\textrm{m}$. The tuning of the resonant frequency of the proposed device is realized by varying the electrical length of the antenna, which is controlled by applying the DC bias voltages to the RF MEMS switches. The designed slot antenna has been simulated, fabricated and measured.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2009.07a
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• pp.1511_1512
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• 2009

This paper presents a polarization switching antenna integrated with silicon RF MEMS SPDT switches in the form of a package. A low-loss quartz substrate made of SoQ (silicon-on-quartz) bonding is used as a dielectric material of the patch antenna, as well as a packaging lid substrate of RF MEMS switches. The packaging/antenna substrate is bonded with the bottom substrate including feeding lines and RF MEMS switches by BCB adhesive bonding, and RF energy is transmitted from signal lines to antenna by slot coupling. Through this approach, fabrication complexity and degradation of RF performances of the antenna due to the parasitic effects, which are all caused from the packaging methods, can be reduced. This structure is expected to be used as a platform for reconfigurable antennas with RF MEMS tunable components. A linear polarization switching antenna operating at 19 GHz is manufactured based on the proposed method, and the fabrication process is carefully described. The s-parameters of the fabricated antenna at each state are measured to evaluate the antenna performance.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.173-178
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• 2015

In lieu of the excellent radio frequency (RF) performance of microelectromechanical system ( MEMS) switches, these micro switches need higher actuation voltage for their operation. This requirement is secondary to concerns over the swtiches’ reliability. This paper reports high reliability operation of RF MEMS switches with low voltage requirements. The proposed switch is optimised to perform in the Q-band, which results in actuation voltage of just 16.4 V. The mechanical stress gradient in the thin micro membrane is computed by simulating von Mises stress in a multi-physics environment that results in 90.4 MPa stress. The computed spring constant for the membrane is 3.02 N/m. The switch results in excellent RF performance with simulated isolation of above 38 dB, insertion loss of less than 0.35 dB and return loss of above 30 dB in the Q-band.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.41-46
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• 2005

In this paper, a new method for suppressing microwelding on the RF MEMS (Radio Frequency Microelectromechanical System) direct contact switches is introduced. Two kinds of refractory metals, tungsten and molybdenum were coated onto the contact point of the switches and the effect of the coating was examined. The changes in insertion loss and isolation at the switch were measured by using network analyzer and power loss was evaluated by power measurement. The results revealed that while tungsten and molybdenum showed higher contact resistance than gold in low input power range, they enhanced the power handling capability and reliability of the switches in high input power region.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2002.07b
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• pp.809-812
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• 2002

This paper presents the structures for a CPW shunt RF switch using MEMS(Micro Electro Mechanical System). Recent development in MEMS technology has made the design and fabrication of micro-mechanical switches as new switching elements. The micro-mechanical switches have low insertion loss, negligible power consumption, and good isolation compared to semiconductor switches. The fabricated structure shows an insertion loss of 2dB at 20GHz When a bias voltages of 12V is apply.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.70-83
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• 2001

In this paper, the recent progress of RF MEMS research for wireless/mobile communications is reviewed. The RF MEMS components reviewed in this paper include RF MEMS switches, tunable capacitors, high Q inductors, and thin film bulk acoustic resonators (TFBARs) to become core components for constructing miniaturized on chip RF transceiver with multi-band and multi-mode operation. Specific applications are also discussed for each of these components with emphasis on for miniaturization, integration, and performance enhancement of existing and future wireless transceiver developments.