Design and fabrication of AlN RF MEMS switch for near-zero power RF wake-up receivers

We describe an AlN-based resonant switch (resoswitch) for use in a Near-Zero (NZero) RF Wake-up receiver. A folded beam structure compensates for the curvature caused by the stress gradient in sputtered AlN and ensures that the free end of center actuation beam is level with the side anchor beams. A 80.13 kHz resoswitch with Q over 4000 and an actuation gap of approximately 600 nm turns on when a -4 dBm, 800MHz signal square wave modulated at 80.13 kHz is applied to the actuator. This AlN electrostatic resoswitch enables integration of a high gain RF piezoelectric transformer with a high-Q electrostatic resoswitch for an ultra-low power RF receiver.