Investigations into RF MEMS switches for reconfigurable phased antenna arrays

This paper presents the parametric study of a low-loss RF-MEMS shunt capacitive switch suitable for reconfigurable phased array antennas. The inductively tuned switch design is analyzed on the HP-ADS Momentum. The width and the height of the air bridge and the CPW line gap hence the bridge length are the three parameters of the switch that are varied to investigate the switch performance from 1 GHz to 40 GHz. Simulated results show that the isolation and return loss of the switch can be optimized by changing the three abovementioned parameters. The switch yields very high isolation and return loss in the order of 50 dB and very tow insertion loss in the order of 0.2 dB over a very large frequency range.