A fully integrated SOI RF MEMS technology for system-on-a-chip applications

In this paper, a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) radio-frequency (RF) microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology compatible with CMOS and high-voltage devices for system-on-a-chip applications is experimentally demonstrated for the first time. This technology allows the integration of RF MEMS switches with driver and processing circuits for single-chip communication applications. The SOI high-voltage device (0.7-mu m channel length, 2-mu m drift length, and over 35-V breakdown voltage), CMOS devices (0.7-mu m channel length and 1.3/-1.2 V threshold voltage), and RF MEMS capacitive switch (insertion loss 0.14 dB at 5 GHz and isolation 9.5 dB at 5 GHz) are designed and fabricated to show the feasibility of building fully integrated RF systems. The performance of the fabricated RF MEMS capacitive switches on low-resistivity and high-resistivity SOI substrates will also be compared.