Current Research Projects:
MEMS RF-to-Millimeter-Wave Switches, Filters, Varactors and Oscillators

Figure 1: Picture of a MEMS bridge in the up and down position. The MEMS bridge is 300 um long, 60 um wide, with a thickness of 1.2 um of sputtered gold and is suspended 1.5 um above the substrate.

Figure 2: SEM picture of an Aluminum MEMS bridge. The MEMS bridge is 300um long, 60 um wide, with a thickness of 1.0 um of sputtered Aluminum and is suspended 1.5 um above the substrate.

Figure 3: Anchor detail of the Aluminum MEMS bridge.

Figure 4: Measured S-parameters of a MEMS bridge in the down-state position. Notice the increased isolation at 30-40 GHz due to the LC series resonance.

Figure 5a: The high-isolation cross-switch.

Figure 5b: Measured S-parameters of the cross-switch (up-state). Notice the excellent match at 20-40 GHz.

Figure 5c: Measured S-parameters of the cross-switch (down-state). Notice the extremely high isolation achieved at 20-40 GHz.

Figure 6a: An inductively tuned X-band MEMS switch.

Figure 6b: Measured S-parameters of the inductively tuned switch. High isolation can be achieved with a small down-state capacitance.

Figure 7: A 30 GHz absorptive MEMS switch. The switch resulted in an isolation of 30 dB at 30 GHz and a reflection coefficient which is better than 20 dB at both ports (all incident power was absorbed by the switch).

Fig. 8: W-Band MEMS switches. Measured isolation is better than 40 dB at 80 GHz for the pi-switch, with an insertion loss of 0.2 dB at 75-85 GHz.