Study of an active thermal recovery mechanism for an electrostatically actuated RF-MEMS switch

We present a comprehensive study on an electrostatically actuated RF-MEMS switch with active thermal recovery capability intended to counteract stiction. On the basis of finite element (FE) simulations a detailed model including all relevant physical effects has been developed to investigate this recovery mechanism. The resulting model enables to reproduce the whole recovery process during a failure situation of the switch, proving its functionality and, thus, identifying and elaborating possible design improvements. The simulated results are confirmed by experimental data obtained from white-light interferometry (VEECO) and laser-Doppler vibrometry (Polytec).