Reliability and Power Handling Issues in Ohmic Series and Shunt Capacitive RF MEMS Switches

Abstract -- RF MEMS series and shunt switches in coplanar waveguide configuration have been tested to check their reliability in terms of the technological yield, the number of cycles and the total time during which they are actuated. Cycles up to 5×10^8 and total actuation times of 5×10^5 sec have been measured for series configurations by using short pulses. More than one week of operation has been experienced on a shunt device. Power handling has been also considered, and purposely designed switches were able to handle powers up to 5 watt.