Vanadium dioxide phase change switches

The thermally driven metal insulator transition in vanadium dioxide (VO2) is used to create a low loss millimeter wave switch which operates up to and beyond W-band frequencies. We have built RF switches using vanadium dioxide thin films fabricated within a section of inverted transmission line with integrated on chip heaters to provide local thermal control. On heating the films above the metal insulator transition we obtain record low switch insertion loss of 0.13 dB at 50 GHz and 0.5 dB at 110 GHz. The switch cut-off frequency is high, fc ~ 45 THz, due to the low on state resistance and off state capacitance. We have investigated the device physics of these switches including self-latching of the devices under high RF powers, and demonstrated their integration with silicon germanium RF circuits where the switch heater current sources and control logic are also integrated into the same silicon germanium circuit.