Metal foil RF micro-relay with integrated heat sink for high power applications

This paper reports an electrostatically actuated ohmic contact micro-relay for high power RF applications. Stainless steel cantilevered micro-relays with platinum-rhodium contacts are micromachined from bulk foils and assembled on the printed circuit boards. Micromachined aluminum heat sinks are integrated on the cantilevers above the point of contact. The devices have a footprint of 2×3.2 mm
²
. Fabricated relays with 90 V turn-on voltage accommodate 10 W of incident RF power at 1 GHz with -0.25 dB of down-state insertion loss and -37 dB of up-state isolation.