SBIR Phase I: Low Cost, High Bandwidth RF Switch

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目旨在开发用于射频（RF）微机电系统（MEMS）开关的微金属球（MMS）制造技术。目标应用是可用于包括手机在内的无线通信系统的高带宽RF开关和数字可调谐RF模块。MMS技术与传统的悬臂式或桥式MEMS开关的区别在于它没有悬挂元件，也不涉及开关驱动的恢复力。在传统的MEMS开关中，随着时间的推移，恢复力通常无法克服界面力，并导致臭名昭著的粘连，导致永久故障。由于MMS开关设计为自由体开关，因此它不会遭受机械磨损，并且可能不会卡住。此外，MMS技术可以提供极具成本效益的封装解决方案，取代常用的劳动密集型和昂贵的晶圆级封装技术。由于MMS技术与传统的硅CMOS技术集成友好，因此它可以放置在任何CMOS IC的顶部。因此，MMS技术的预期效益扩展到缩小尺寸。此外，MMS技术有望将激活电压降低到10V以下。该项目的广泛影响/商业潜力是使手机制造商能够设计更小、更低成本的智能手机、入门级手机和其他移动设备，这将加速手机和计算设备的融合，为下一波移动创新服务。MMS技术将使低成本智能手机能够补充或取代笔记本电脑，为工作、学习、社交和娱乐的移动用户提供数据和通信。全球影响将是巨大的，因为2011年将生产约13亿部手机，其中57%将是使用射频MEMS组件的多频段手机。MMS技术将以较低的成本为全球普通消费者提供多用途和高质量的手机通信，集成语音、文本、数据和视频。凭借固有的堆叠和可扩展性，MMS技术还将能够延长目前面临进一步扩展基本限制的流行硅CMOS技术的寿命。对于手机中的射频组件，到2011年，总可寻址市场（TAM）为19亿美元，服务可用市场（SAM）为4.6亿美元。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is aimed at developing Micro Metal Sphere (MMS) fabrication technology for Radio-Frequency (RF) Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System (MEMS) switch. The target applications are high-bandwidth RF switches and digitally-tunable RF modules that can be used in wireless communication systems including cell phones. The MMS technology is distinguished from conventional cantilever or bridge type MEMS switches in that it does not have a suspended element and no restoring force is involved in the switch actuation. In conventional MEMS switches, the restoring force is often not able to overcome interfacial forces over time and causes the infamous stiction that leads to permanent failure. Since the MMS switch is designed to switch with free body, it does not suffer from mechanical wear and possibly free from stiction. In addition, the MMS technology can provide an extremely cost effective packaging solution replacing commonly used labor intensive and costly wafer level packaging technology. Since the MMS technology is integration-friendly with conventional silicon CMOS technology, it can be placed on top of any CMOS IC. Therefore, anticipated benefit with the MMS technology extends to size reduction. Also the MMS technology is expected to lower the activation voltage below 10V.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is enabling mobile-phone makers to design smaller, lower-cost smart phones, entry-level handsets, and other mobile devices, which will accelerate the convergence of cell phones and computing devices for the next wave of mobile innovations. The MMS technology will enable lower-cost smart phones that will either complement or replace notebook PCs among mobile users who access data and communicate anywhere for work, study, social networking, and entertainment. The global impact will be enormous because, of about 1.3 billion cell phones to be produced in 2011, of which 57% will be multi-band handsets using RF MEMS components. The MMS technology will enable versatile and high-quality cell-phone communications at a lower cost integrating voice, text, data, and video for the average consumers worldwide. With the inherent stacking and scalability, the MMS technology will also be able to extend the life of popular silicon CMOS technologies currently facing the fundamental limits to further scaling. For RF components in cell phones, the total addressable market (TAM) is $1.9 billion and served available market (SAM) is $460 million by 2011.