A silicon micromachined RF microswitch

A mechanical microswitch for use in micro- or millimeter-waves has been fab ricated by single-crystal silicon bulk micromachining on a glass substrate. The mechanical part of the device has superior mechanical reliability and can be applied to a large-scale integrated circuit, since the glass substra te can be easily extended to a large area, accommodating a large number of elements on it. A fabricated device was measured to have 0.3 dB of on-state insertion loss and 14 dB of off-state isolation at 30 GHz.