Switch Stacking for OFF-State Power Handling Improvements in PCM RF Switches

Device stacking in the PCM RF switch technology is demonstrated for the first time to significantly improve OFF-state voltage and power handling capability. Due to the extremely low C
OFF
of the unit device, traditional device stacking is both limited and difficult. Using a proximally intimate feed-forward “compensation” capacitor, PCM RF switch stacks demonstrate linear improvements in OFF-state power handling and harmonic distortion. Stacks of 4 devices demonstrated an OFF-state RF breakdown of 35 dBm with the baseline process and layout. Additionally, an experimental process was used to trade R
ON
for OFF-state breakdown voltage, resulting in a 4-stack of devices demonstrating OFF-state RF breakdown of 39 dBm. These results demonstrate for the first time large OFF-state power handling values and linear stacking ability in the PCM RF switch technology.