Study of the actuation speed, bounces occurrences, and contact reliability of ohmic RF-MEMS switches

The influence of the bias signal waveform on the electromechanical dynamic response of ohmic RF-MEMS switches is here investigated by means of electromechanical characterizations and modelling procedures. The actuation transient of ohmic RF-MEMS switches was studied in this work developing a fast to compute, but comprehensive electromechanical model, using electromechanical parameters from experimental results. The developed model was then used to investigate how different bias waveforms influence the switch dynamic, in terms of actuation time, and bounces occurrences, and a practical solution to limit bounces, without compromising the actuation time was presented. Furthermore, it was demonstrated how it is possible to improve the reliability to cycling stress using ad hoc shaped bias signals.