Modelling of Solution Processed Indium Arsenide Nanowire Microwave Switches

This paper presents the modelling of a coplanar-waveguide bottom-gated FET switch using indium-arsenide nanowires. The nanowires have been included on the switch using dielectrophoresis, which is a solution processable technique. This is a necessary first step towards developing a fully printable switch on a flexible substrate, for low cost microwave devices, built using additive manufacturing methods. The measured S-parameters show the switching capabilities of the device with an insertion loss of 9 dB, when the switch is open (gate voltage ⋝ 60 V). The development of a distributed circuit model that matches the measured data is described, alongside the calculated network parameters used to represent the coplanar-waveguide and the nanowires. The model fits the measured results within 8%, making it suitable for inclusion in a CAD based circuit simulator.