Design and Fabrication of an Electrostatic AlN RF MEMS Switch for Near-Zero Power RF Wake-Up Receivers

We describe an aluminum nitride (AlN)-based resonant switch for use in a near zero power radio frequency (RF) wake-up receiver. A folded beam structure with a slot compensates for the curvature caused by the stress gradient in the sputtered AlN film and ensures that the released contact gap is approximately equal to the designed contact gap. A 80 kHz resoswitch with a Q of 8600 and an actuation gap of approximately 600 nm turns on when a -4 dBm, 800 MHz signal, square wave modulated at 80 kHz, is applied to the actuator. This AlN electrostatic resonant switch is designed to enable integration with a high gain AlN RF piezoelectric transformer to form a complete ultra-low power RF receiver.