A study on the performance and reliability of magnetostatic actuated RF MEMS switches

The magnetostatic radio frequency micro-electro-mechanical system switch is a special latching type of switch that possesses substantially high performance due to low loss, high linearity, and broad bandwidth. This new technology targets applications where high electrical performance and reliability are required in a harsh environment. A study on switch performance and reliability under different environmental conditions is crucial to its applications. In order to assess the reliability under desired environmental and operational conditions, comprehensive humidity and temperature reliability tests were conducted. The humidity test was conducted under high relative humidity and temperature cycling conditions. The thermal aging test was conducted at different temperature levels, which was used to study the fitness of lifetime distribution and validate the suitability of Arrhenius model that can be used for the lifetime prediction at normal operation temperature.