IN-PLANE SLIDING PARALLEL CAPACITIVE RADIO FREQUENCY SWITCH

Abstract

An in-plane sliding parallel capacitive radio frequency (RF) switch includes a substrate, first to third drive components, an insulating layer, and a sliding component. Where a drive voltage is applied between the first and second drive components, the sliding component slides to the top of the first and second drive components; in this case, relatively large capacitance is formed between the first and second drive components and the sliding component, a RF signal is almost completely reflected, and the transmission is cut off. Where the drive voltage is applied between the second and third drive components, the sliding component slides to the top of the second and third drive components; in this case, no facing area between a first drive electrode and the sliding component exists in a vertical direction, the capacitance is rather small, and the RF signal may be transmitted basically without loss.

Claims

1. An in-plane sliding parallel capacitive radio frequency (RF) switch, comprising: a drive component which is disposed in the substrate and comprises a first drive component, a second drive component, and a third drive component; an insulating layer which is disposed on a surface of the substrate; a sliding component which has a superlubric interface, is disposed on the insulating layer, and contacts with the insulating layer through the superlubric interface; wherein the drive component is able to drive the sliding component to change a position of the sliding component relative to the drive component.

2. The RF switch of claim 1, wherein the sliding component is capable of being driven to slide along a horizontal direction in a plane, and overlapping and separation of the drive component and the sliding component in a vertical plane is adjusted to achieve switching.

3. The RF switch of claim 1, wherein the drive component is a drive electrode.

4. The RF switch of claim 1, wherein the sliding component is a superlubric slice with a superlubric surface.

5. The RF switch of claim 1, wherein the substrate is an insulating material or a semiconductor material.

6. The RF switch of claim 5, wherein the semiconductor material is high-resistance silicon; and the insulating material is SiO.sub.2, SiC, sapphire, or mica.

7. The RF switch of claim 1, wherein the insulating layer is a silicon oxide layer.

8. The RF switch of claim 1, wherein the insulating layer is smooth in atomic scale and has a thickness of 1 to 100 nanometers.

9. The RF switch of claim 1, wherein the sliding component is driven through electrostatic drive.

10. The RF switch of claim 4, wherein the sliding component is a highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) superlubric slice.

11. The RF switch of claim 8, wherein the insulating layer has a thickness of 2 to 50 nanometers.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0022] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conducting state of a parallel capacitive RF switch according to the present disclosure;

[0023] FIG. 2 is a top diagram of a conducting state of a parallel capacitive RF switch according to the present disclosure;

[0024] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a non-conducting state of a parallel capacitive RF switch according to the present disclosure;

[0025] FIG. 4 is a top diagram of a non-conducting state of a parallel capacitive RF switch according to the present disclosure; and

[0026] FIG. 5 is a sectional diagram of a substrate of an embedded drive electrode of a parallel capacitive RF switch according to the present disclosure.

REFERENCE LIST

[0027] 1 HOPG SUPERLUBRIC SLICE [0028] 2 insulating layer [0029] 3 substrate [0030] 4 first drive electrode [0031] 5 second drive electrode [0032] 6 third drive electrode

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0033] The superlubric slice in the present disclosure is part of a superlubric slider in the existing art. During relative sliding between two contact surfaces of the existing superlubric sliders, the friction is almost zero, a friction coefficient is less than one thousandth, and wear is zero.

[0034] For example, an existing preparation method of the superlubric slice based on the HOPG is specifically described below.

[0035] In step 1, the HOPG is covered with the photoresist. For example, the HOPG is covered by the photoresist through spin-coating.

[0036] In step 2, the photoresist is patterned and multiple photoresist mesas are retained in the patterned photoresist. The step of patterning the photoresist determines the layout of the graphite mesas formed in the subsequent steps. For example, the photoresist may be patterned by an electron beam etching method, an average size of the formed photoresist mesas may be, for example, 1 μm to 30 μm, and an average interval between the photoresist mesas is 1 μm to 100 μm so that the etched graphite mesas also have corresponding average diameters and average intervals.

[0037] In step 3, a substrate is etched and part of the substrate that is not protected by the photoresist is removed, so as to form multiple graphite mesas. The etching method may be, for example, reactive ion etching (RIE).

[0038] In step 4, the multiple graphite mesas are cleaved one by one by a mechanical arm to check whether the graphite sliders have superlubric slices. On a lower surface of the graphite mesa with self-healing properties, an HOPG slice with the superlubric shear surface is the superlubric slice.

[0039] Embodiments of the present disclosure are further described below with reference to the drawings.

[0040] As shown in FIG. 1, the in-plane sliding parallel capacitive RF switch is composed of a high-resistance silicon substrate 3, a first drive electrode 4, a second drive electrode 5, a third drive electrode 6, an insulating layer 2, and an HOPG superlubric slice 1. The first drive electrode 4, the second drive electrode 5, and the third drive electrode 6 are embedded in the substrate 3. A surface of the substrate 3 and surfaces of the first drive electrode 4, the second drive electrode 5, and the third drive electrode 6 are flush and remain atomically flat. The insulating layer 2 covers the first drive electrode 4, the second drive electrode 5, and the third drive electrode 6 and is used for insulating between the HOPG superlubric slice and the first drive electrode 4, the second drive electrode 5 and the third drive electrode 6. A thickness of the insulating layer 2 is controlled between 2 nm to 50 nm so that a gap between the first drive electrode 4, the second drive electrode 5 and the third drive electrode 6 and the superlubric slice 1 is small enough, thereby ensuring a relatively small excitation voltage. Alternatively, the thickness of the insulating layer 2 may be controlled between 2 nm to 200 nm. The HOPG superlubric slice 1 is disposed on the insulating layer so as to form a superlubric slider with the insulating layer 2. An initial position of the superlubric slice 1 faces the first drive electrode 4. Since the HOPG superlubric slice 1 has a flat superlubric surface in the atomic scale, the HOPG superlubric slice 1 may slide on the surface of the insulating layer 2 with extremely low friction and without wear; and at the same time, adhesion failure due to charge accumulation on the electrode does not occur, thereby achieving an ultra-long service life.

[0041] A working process of the in-plane sliding parallel capacitive RF switch is described below. FIGS. 1 and 2 show that the RF switch is in a conducting state. A drive voltage V is applied between the first drive electrode 4 and the second drive electrode 5. In this case, left and right ends of the HOPG superlubric slice 1 induce charges to generate a floating potential, and the HOPG superlubric slice 1 moves toward a position where the potential energy is the smallest, that is, a centrosymmetric position of the first drive electrode 4 and the second drive electrode 5. In this case, between the HOPG superlubric slice 1 and the third drive electrode 6, since no overlapping area in a vertical direction exists, the capacitance is close to zero, and RF signals can all pass through without reflection loss.

[0042] In the case where the drive voltage V is applied between the second drive electrode 5 and the third drive electrode 6 as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the HOPG superlubric slice 1 is subjected to a leftward force and pulled to a centrosymmetric position of the second drive electrode 5 and the third drive electrode 6. Since the thickness of the insulating layer 2 is nanoscale, a relatively large capacitance is formed between the HOPG superlubrci slice 1 and the third drive electrode 6, the RF signals are completely reflected, and the transmission is cut off.

[0043] The number, arrangement, and timing control of the drive electrodes and the size of the HOPG superlubric slice are adjusted so as to achieve the in-plane continuous sliding of the HOPG superlubric slice.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

[0044] The above are only preferred embodiments of the present disclosure. Any equivalent variations or modification made according to the scope of the claims in the present disclosure should belong to the coverage scope of the claims in the present disclosure.