Low-voltage Micromechanical RF Switch Based on a Piezoelectric Micro-cantilever Integrated with a Transmission Line

This paper reports a class of compact low-voltage-actuated micromechanical radio-frequency (RF) switches with a piezoelectric micro-cantilever and a signal transmission line in an integrated form. Perovskite lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin film was prepared by using a facile sol-gel process in a programmable manner. The proposed RF switch was demonstrated without significant structural deformation by optimization of both the structural design and batch fabrication with various micromachining techniques. The proposed compact RF switch was experimentally found to be actuated with an applied voltage as low as 2 V. The switch also showed high isolation and moderate insertion loss for frequencies up to 5 GHz.