Innovative Micro Technology, the largest pure-play Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) foundry in the US, announced that R&D Magazine has selected Curled Micro Electro Mechanical Switch (CMEMS) as a winner of 2014 R&D 100 Awards.
Recognized as the leader in custom MEMS, IMT optimized the process for high volume production by incorporating Cu-filled through silicon vias and hermetic wafer-level packaging. Stiction, dielectric charging, and particle contamination that limit the performance and reliability of past RF MEMS switches have essentially been eliminated, while improving the device insertion loss and linearity for real world applications.
Originally developed at MIT Lincoln Labs, CMEMS is a capacitive switch based on a curled, corrugated cantilever beam design. The switch technology has demonstrated over 100 billion cycles in the laboratory environment. Because of the technology’s innovative design and potential commercial and military applications, MIT Lincoln Labs partnered with IMT to refine the manufacturing process to improve robustness and to scale for volume production. Innovative Micro Technology’s Single Pole Double Throw (SPDT) devices – Innovian™ MEMS switch technology platform – has been tested to 40 GHz with 0.5 dB insertion loss.
“Recognition from R&D is an honor. RF MEMS switch technology has been elusive, and many companies have failed along the way. We fully support this technology and plan to partner with industry leaders to bring the switch to the market,” said Craig Ensley, Chief Executive Officer of IMT. “The maturity of the technology has finally reached commercialization.”
Samples of Innovian MEMS switches are available for evaluation. If interested in obtaining samples or in learning more about custom MEMS foundry services, please contact Innovative Micro Technology.
Key technologies incorporated in Innovian platform are wafer-level packaging and Cu-filled through silicon vias, all core capabilities at IMT. These building blocks are modules in IMT process portfolio that can be adapted to other applications. In this application, lid wafers are fabricated with a cavity and a gold bondline that hermetically bond to the switch wafers with a matching gold bondline. Furthermore, Cu-filled through silicon via technology is combined to allow electrical signals to be routed through the thickness of the switch wafer, shortening the path and improving the RF performance.
Source: http://www.imtmems.com/