Analog Devices Makes MEMS Switch Technology a Commercial Reality

For OEMs, new switch technology enables next-generation instrumentation equipment with increased channel density and extended speed, operating lifetime and reduced power consumption.

Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) today introduced a breakthrough in switch technology that provides along-sought replacement for electromechanical relay designs first adopted by the electronics industry more than 100 years ago. ADI’s new RF-MEMS switch technology isenablingfaster, smaller, lower power, more reliable instrumentation equipment by resolving multiple performance limitations commonly attributed to relays, whose origins date to the earliest days of the electric telegraph. With the commercial release of products enabled by this technology, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) can significantly improve the accuracy and versatility of automatic test equipment (ATE) and other instrumentation tools to help their customers reduce testing costs, power and time to market. Future products within the MEMS switch series will replace relays in aerospace and defense, healthcare, and communications infrastructure equipment, allowing OEMs in those markets to pass similar size, power and cost savings along to their customers.

The first in a new product series, ADI’s ADGM1304 and ADGM1004 RFMEMS switches are 95 percent smaller, 30 times faster, 10 times more reliable, and use 10 times less power than conventional electromechanical relays.
• Learn more about ADI’s MEMS switch technology: http://www.analog.com/memsswitch

• View the ADGM1304 and ADGM1004 MEMS switch product pages, download data sheets, order samples and evaluation boards:
o http://www.analog.com/ADGM1304
o http://www/analog.com/ADGM1004

• Connect with engineers and ADI product experts on EngineerZone®, an online technical support community: https://ez.analog.com/community/switches_multiplexers/content

MEMS Switch Technology Delivers 0-Hz (DC) toWideband RF Performance

Unlike other switch alternatives such as solid-state relays, the ADGM1304 and ADGM1004 MEMS switches have superior precision and RF performance from 0 Hz (DC) to 14 GHz. ADI’s MEMS switch solution contains two die to maximize operational performance – anelectrostatically actuated switch in a hermetically sealed silicon cap, and a low-voltage, low-current driver IC. The switching element has a highly conditioned, extremely reliablemetal-to-metal contact thatis actuated via an electrostatic force generated by the companion driver IC. The resultant co-packaged solution ensures best-in-class DC precision and RF performance, and makes the switch extremely easy to use.

Switch BreakthroughExtends ATE Equipment Lifetimeand Channel Densities

Thehighly reliable ADGM1304 and ADGM1004 increase cold-switching lifetimeby a factor of 10 compared to electromechanical relays, extending ATE systemoperating lifeand reducing costly downtime caused by relay failures. Additionally, the extremely small height of the ADGM1304 and ADGM1004 MEMS switch packages allowdesigners to surface-mount the devices on both sides of their ATE test boards to boost channel densities at reduced cost and without expanding equipment footprint. An integrated charge pump removes the need for external drivers, further reducing ATE system size, while a multiplexer configuration simplifies the fan-out structure compared to DPDTrelay designs.

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