In this letter, a piezoelectric microelectromechanical sequently the potential for conversion to mechanical work is
switch is presented. The switch uses a PbZr0.52Ti0.48O3 共PZT兲 much greater.8 This difference can lead to lower actuation
cantilever actuator in the d33 mode to achieve switching op- voltages and faster switching speeds. Normally-off electro-
eration and high speed. This work is motivated by the recent static switches rely upon the elastic restoring force of the
advances that have made microelectromechanical systems moving structure for achieving the off state. Since the restor-
共MEMS兲 rf components attractive as replacements for con- ing force is smaller than the closing force, opening is slower,
ventional crystal resonators, filters, and semiconductor leading inevitably to design trade-offs. Piezoelectric strains
switches.1 Application areas that stand to benefit from these can be either positive or negative 共within the limits set by the
emerging rf MEMS technologies include satellite and wire- reorientation of the domain state in a ferroelectric film兲 and
less communication systems, commercial and military radar, can therefore be used actively to turn the switch off as well
global positioning systems, and instrumentation systems.2 as on. This characteristic allows the design of larger contacts
Typical semiconductor switches, such as GaAs field-effect for high-power capability as well as improved reliability due
transistors and p – i – n diodes, currently used in these appli- to mitigated stiction effects.
cations exhibit high insertion losses (S 21) of 1–2 dB or Ferroelectric PZT thin films with high piezoelectric co-
greater, and poor isolation in the off state due to parasitics.3 efficient d33⫽120 pC/N have been used as the active
On the contrary, MEMS switches have demonstrated signifi- material.9,10 Despite the high coefficient, the strain generated
cant improvements with insertion losses of less than 0.1 dB by these perovskite ceramic thin films is typically small, on
up to 40 GHz and very high isolation 共⬎27 dB兲 when turned the order of 0.1%. Therefore, a bending structure is used to
off.2,3 In addition, MEMS switches typically consume negli- increase the deflection at the expense of the force. Figure
gible power during each switching cycle. Signal switching is 1共a兲 shows a schematic representation of the current uni-
accomplished by the mechanical deflection of a suspended morph 共heterogeneous bimorph兲 design, and Fig. 1共b兲 shows
structure yielding a metal-to-metal contact or capacitive cou- a scanning electron microscope 共SEM兲 image of a fabricated
pling. Various actuation methods have been investigated in- switch with dc transmission lines. The unimorph is com-
cluding electrostatic,4 electromagnetic,5 thermal, and posed of a PZT active layer on top of a passive stack of
piezoelectric.6 At present, the majority of MEMS switches zirconia (ZrO2 ) and silicon nitride (Six Ny ). With the inter-
employ electrostatic actuation. However, electrostatic actua- digitated 共IDT兲 electrode configuration the PZT is poled in
tion is a nonlinear mechanism, and usually requires high the transverse direction and actuated in the d33 mode.11,12
voltages to operate, especially if high-frequency operation is The electrode width is 3 m with a separation of 6 m. The
desired. Switching times below 10 s typically require maximum deflection and blocking force in a unimorph are
greater than 50 V.7 achieved by optimizing the thickness ratio of the passive/
Exploiting an alternative actuation method such as the active materials.13 Residual stresses in deposited thin films
converse piezoelectric effect is expected to lead to a substan- often result in out-of-plane bending of the cantilevers, which
tial improvement in device performance. The energy density adversely affects performance, and if severe enough, can pre-
available in ferroelectric thin films such as PZT is at least an vent switch closure completely. Therefore, the structures
order of magnitude greater than with electrostatics, and sub- were stress compensated by controlling the PZT thickness.
Fabrication begins with an insulating substrate, in this
a兲
Electronic mail: sjg12@psu.edu case an oxidized 共1.5-m兲 silicon wafer. A sacrificial poly-
100 MHz can be switched, with approximately 30 dB of quency. Fast switching compared with resonance frequencies
isolation between the on and off states. has also been observed in electrostatic switches.2
These results correspond to a device with a cantilever In conclusion, we have fabricated and tested a transverse
length of 230 m 共27 IDT electrodes兲, a width of 100 m mode piezoelectric microswitch based on ferroelectric PZT
and a 1.1-m thickness. The measured fundamental reso- thin films. A robust fabrication process using ion milling and
nance frequency, f 0 ⫽19 kHz, matches to within 10% of dry release in XeF2 to avoid stiction-related problems has
theory. An analysis of the switching time begins with a dy- been developed. Initial measurements have demonstrated
namic model for a one-degree-of-freedom system. The equa- relatively high switching speeds 共1–2 s兲, and ⬃30-dB iso-
tion of motion is given as lation between on and off states at 100 MHz. The actuation
voltage of these piezoelectric switches is expected to be
d 2z dz lower with better stress compensation, more closely spaced
F⫽m ⫹b ⫹kz, 共1兲
dt 2 dt IDT electrodes, or by the use of a bimorph design. Improved
performance at higher frequencies is expected with rf trans-
where m is the mass, z is the position of the tip at time t, k is
mission lines and by using insulating substrates.
the spring constant of the cantilever, and F, the internal
force, is generated by the piezoelectric effect. All forms of The authors gratefully acknowledge support from the
damping, including squeeze damping, have been ignored; b U.S. Army and the Northrop Grumman Corporation.
⫽0.2 The force is modeled as a step function by ignoring the
1
IDT electrode capacitance charging time and material me- C. T.-C. Nguyen, Proceedings of the Sensors Exposition, 19–21 May
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8
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␦
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10
1
on⫽ cos⫺1 1⫺ . 共3兲 11
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12
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14
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