Arrays of GeTe Electrically Activated RF Switches

International audienceWe report the fabrication and the high-frequencycharacterization of four-terminals GeTe -phase change materialRF switches. The device integrates an indirect heating system forreversible changing the GeTe material’s state from crystalline toamorphous. We show that the dimensions of the GeTe patternshave to be optimized for obtaining high on-state resistances of asingle device and proper RF performances. For an electricalactivation of an initially crystalline GeTe pattern to itsamorphous state we used an electrical pulse with a 500 nsduration and 60 mA intensity resulting in switches having 7fFoff-state capacitance. The reverse process (switch turned to theON state) requires an electrical pulse of 3 µs and 40 mA intensity,resulting in an on-state resistance of 36Ω. We demonstrate thatarrays of similar 8-switches present very good performances,with 0.8 dB of insertion loss and 25 dB of isolation at 5 GHz