Modeling of Spring Constant and Pull-in Voltage of T-Shaped Radio Frequency Microelectromechanical (RF-MEMS) Cantilever Switch

Abstract

This paper presents the design and simulation of a low actuation voltage microelectromechanical system (MEMS) switch for high-frequency applications. Low pull-in voltage and low spring constant of the switch were achieved by using T-shape microcantilever of specific dimension. The modelling indicated that increased area of actuation at a distance from the fixed end reduced the pull-in voltage. Increasing the length of the cantilever was also observed to decrease the pull-in voltage to an even greater extent than increasing the actuation area did. It has been observed that switches using this design and actuation mechanism, the minimum pull-in voltage of 5-8 V can be achieved. Finally, both theoretical and simulated data for the dynamic behaviour of the device is presented