RF MEMS compact T-type switch design for switch matrix applications in space telecommunication

This paper presents a novel approach to monolithically implement a planar multiport radio-frequency (RF) microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) T-type switch. T-type switches are used as building blocks of redundancy switch matrices used in space telecommunication. The T-type switch performs signal routing in three operational states. Two of them are boundary states while the other one is a crossover state. The proposed design uses a series metal contact clamped-clamped beam SPST switches, four port psi junctions and a RF crossover. The simulated results for the entire T-type switch demonstrate an insertion loss of −0.48dB and isolation better than −22.12dB for all states for frequencies up to 25GHz. The use of eight switches instead of twelve makes T-type switch compact. This improves the reliability and compactness of the redundancy switch matrix. The switch gives excellent RF performance near X-band and Ku-band which is the most widely used frequency range for satellite communication.