Glass Cap Packaged High Isolating Ka-Band RF-MEMS Switch

A. STEHLE¹, G. GEORGIEV^1,3, V. ZIEGLER¹, B. SCHOENLINNER¹, U. PRECHTEL¹, H. SEIDEL², U. SCHMID<sup>2

1</sup>EADS Innovation Works, Dept: Sensors, Electronics and System Integration, Munich, Germany, Phone: +49 89 607 29054
²Saarland University, Chair of Micromechanics, Microfluidics/Microactuators, Saarbrücken, Germany, Phone: +49 681 302 3979
³Brunel GmbH, 85622 Feldkirchen, Germany

Abstract. This paper presents a packaged high-isolation RF-MEMS switch at Ka-band. The package consists of a glass cap with a milled cavity to protect the RF-MEMS. The glass cap, with a low dielectric constant, is bonded to the silicon substrate using ultraviolet light curable glue in a room temperature process. The packaging is non-hermetic but able to withstand water and dust for a limited time period. The switch shows an isolation of -50 dB and an insertion loss of -0.8 dB at 30 GHz. The additional loss due to the package was found to be only 0.1 dB. Index Terms. Microelectromechanical devices, microwave switch, RF-MEMS, packaging.