Vanadium Dioxide Series and Shunt RF Switches Synthesized using Low Thermal Budget Process

Vanadium dioxide
$(\text{VO}_{2})$
exhibits a reversible phase transition from an insulating state to a metallic state at 68 °C, significantly changing its electrical/optical properties leading to several switching applications in DC to optical frequencies. This work reports
$\text{VO}_{2}$
phase transition-based series and shunt RF switches using
$\text{VO}_{2}$
films synthesized with a low-thermal budget process.
$\text{VO}_{2}$
RF switches are embedded in a co-planar waveguide and their switching performance is characterized using a vector network analyzer in 1-8.5 GHz. The series switch configuration achieves isolation of 21 dB at 1 GHz with an insertion loss of 1.5 dB, while the shunt RF switch shows an isolation of ∼ 16 dB, and an insertion loss of 0.3 dB up to 8.5 GHz, respectively. A transmission line-based approach is used to model the performance of the RF switch in both series and shunt configurations.