Preparing of a high speed bistable electromagnetic RF MEMS switch

A radio-frequency micro-electro-mechanical systems (RF MEMS) switch with bistable states based on electromagnetic actuation is presented. The switch has two stable positions due to the adoption of the permanent magnets, which will lead to a lower power consumption of the device. With electromagnetic actuation arising from the planar coils, the cantilever beam can switch from one stable position to the other. The structure sizes of the switch are simulated by the finite element software of the ANSYS 7.0. The device with a size of 2.0 mm x 2.2 mm is fabricated by UV-LIGA technology. A current pulse with an amplitude of 50 mA is needed for the fabricated switches' switching between two stable states that is in good agreement with the simulation, and the switching time is only approximately 20 mu s. The insertion loss is -0.11 dB, and the isolation is -43 dB at 3 GHz. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.