A high performance tunable RF MEMS switch using barium strontium titanate (BST) dielectrics for reconfigurable antennas and phased arrays

In this letter, a tunable RF micro electronic mechanical systems (MEMS) switch used for the development of reconfigurable antennas that is fabricated on sapphire substrate with a barium strontium titanate (BST) dielectric is presented. BST dielectric is deposited by a combustion chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) technology. BST has a very high dielectric constant (> 300) making it very appealing for high performance RF MEMS capacitive switches. The tunable dielectric constant of BST provides a possibility of making linearly tunable MEMS capacitor switches. Here for the first time a capacitive tunable RF MEMS switch with a BST dielectric and its characterization and properties up to 40 GHz are presented.