Development and qualification of miniature MEMS switch matrices for space applications – COMMAS

The CEA-LETI (Grenoble, France), the Center for Integrated RF Engineering (UW-CIRFE) at the University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Canada), COM DEV international (Cambridge, Canada) and IMEP institute are glad to submit a French-Canadian joint research proposal, in response to the first ANR-NSERC International call, for the development and the fabrication of miniature multiport switches and switch matrices for space applications using Nano/Micro-Electrical-Mechanical Systems (N/MEMS) technology. The major goals of this project are: ? Development of novel ultra miniature N/MEMS multiport switch building blocks that are scalable to build high order switch matrices for space applications and broadband operations up to mm-wave, ? Improvement of switch reliability by optimizing the contact materials or structures and the dielectric composition, ? Investigation of techniques to improve N/MEMS switch tuning speed to achieve nano-second speeds approaching that of semiconductor switches, ? Development and fabrication of prototype large switch matrices for redundancy and signal routing satellite payload applications, ? Qualification and reliability testing for satellite payload requirements. The consortium is composed of 5 entities with important experience on RF MEMS Switches, multiport switches and satellite payload devices. ? CEA-LETI will act as project leader. They will be responsible for device fabrication addressing process-failure issues. It is also responsible for testing process-related reliability parameters and overall device reliability qualification. ? UW-CIRFE will be responsible for the development of novel RF MEMS switch and switch matrices with a focus on improving RF performance, tuning speed addressing device-related failure issues. It will be also responsible for assembly and integration of RF switch matrices as well overall all switch matrix reliability. ? COM DEV will define the typical requirements needed for space applications and qualification tests interfacing with both research teams at UW-CIRFE and CEA-LETI. COM DEV will also perform the final testing on the final QM model to be developed under this project. ? IMEP-LAHC will be responsible of the mm-wave and time domain characterisation and performance wafer mapping. ? NovaMEMS will assess the reliability issues of the project: design of test vehicles, material analysis, device reliability assessment, definition of qualification models.