A Grounded Co-Planar Waveguide MEMS Switch

A grounded co-planar waveguide (GCPW) MEMS switch is presented. The proposed switch has a movable SiN membrane with a signal line and ground lines above a dielectric-air-metal (DAM) cavity on which a ground metal is patterned, resulting in a structure of GCPW transmission line. The electrostatic force makes an RF short path to the ground metal on the bottom of the DAM cavity with metal-to-metal contact. The ground metal which covers silicon substrate makes the switch to be on a low-resistivity silicon substrate. The measured results of the switch validate the proposed structure of the switches utilizing the DAM cavity.