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  • MEMS again

    From john larkin@21:1/5 to All on Wed Nov 13 10:16:54 2024
    Menlo Micro is making some grand claims for their power and RF relays.
    They appear to be electrostatic MEMS relays. Lots of people have tried
    that in the past couple of decades, but the parts haven't been
    reliable.

    https://menlomicro.com/images/general/MM5130_Datasheet.pdf

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Cursitor Doom@21:1/5 to All on Wed Nov 13 19:09:19 2024
    On Wed, 13 Nov 2024 19:00:29 +0000, Cursitor Doom <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    On Wed, 13 Nov 2024 10:16:54 -0800, john larkin <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    Menlo Micro is making some grand claims for their power and RF relays.
    They appear to be electrostatic MEMS relays. Lots of people have tried
    that in the past couple of decades, but the parts haven't been
    reliable.

    https://menlomicro.com/images/general/MM5130_Datasheet.pdf

    On-State Insertion Loss is only stated at 6Ghz. I'd be interested to
    know what it is closer to the top end. A graph would be better,
    though.

    Ignore that! They did provide one; must have somehow missed it first
    time.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Cursitor Doom@21:1/5 to All on Wed Nov 13 19:00:29 2024
    On Wed, 13 Nov 2024 10:16:54 -0800, john larkin <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    Menlo Micro is making some grand claims for their power and RF relays.
    They appear to be electrostatic MEMS relays. Lots of people have tried
    that in the past couple of decades, but the parts haven't been
    reliable.

    https://menlomicro.com/images/general/MM5130_Datasheet.pdf

    On-State Insertion Loss is only stated at 6Ghz. I'd be interested to
    know what it is closer to the top end. A graph would be better,
    though.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From john larkin@21:1/5 to All on Wed Nov 13 14:12:29 2024
    On Wed, 13 Nov 2024 19:00:29 +0000, Cursitor Doom <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    On Wed, 13 Nov 2024 10:16:54 -0800, john larkin <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    Menlo Micro is making some grand claims for their power and RF relays.
    They appear to be electrostatic MEMS relays. Lots of people have tried
    that in the past couple of decades, but the parts haven't been
    reliable.

    https://menlomicro.com/images/general/MM5130_Datasheet.pdf

    On-State Insertion Loss is only stated at 6Ghz. I'd be interested to
    know what it is closer to the top end. A graph would be better,
    though.

    All the parts can only cold switch. That would seem to be a problem,
    especially for the power parts. How do you cold switch a circuit
    breaker?

    The two killers of MEMS relays have always been contacts frying and
    contacts sticking.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Cursitor Doom@21:1/5 to All on Thu Nov 14 00:10:51 2024
    On Wed, 13 Nov 2024 14:12:29 -0800, john larkin <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    On Wed, 13 Nov 2024 19:00:29 +0000, Cursitor Doom <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    On Wed, 13 Nov 2024 10:16:54 -0800, john larkin <[email protected]> >>wrote:

    Menlo Micro is making some grand claims for their power and RF relays. >>>They appear to be electrostatic MEMS relays. Lots of people have tried >>>that in the past couple of decades, but the parts haven't been
    reliable.

    https://menlomicro.com/images/general/MM5130_Datasheet.pdf

    On-State Insertion Loss is only stated at 6Ghz. I'd be interested to
    know what it is closer to the top end. A graph would be better,
    though.

    All the parts can only cold switch. That would seem to be a problem, >especially for the power parts. How do you cold switch a circuit
    breaker?

    The two killers of MEMS relays have always been contacts frying and
    contacts sticking.

    Holy crap, I didn't spot that! Big downer.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From john larkin@21:1/5 to All on Thu Nov 14 07:29:01 2024
    On Thu, 14 Nov 2024 00:10:51 +0000, Cursitor Doom <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    On Wed, 13 Nov 2024 14:12:29 -0800, john larkin <[email protected]>
    wrote:

    On Wed, 13 Nov 2024 19:00:29 +0000, Cursitor Doom <[email protected]> >>wrote:

    On Wed, 13 Nov 2024 10:16:54 -0800, john larkin <[email protected]> >>>wrote:

    Menlo Micro is making some grand claims for their power and RF relays. >>>>They appear to be electrostatic MEMS relays. Lots of people have tried >>>>that in the past couple of decades, but the parts haven't been >>>>reliable.

    https://menlomicro.com/images/general/MM5130_Datasheet.pdf

    On-State Insertion Loss is only stated at 6Ghz. I'd be interested to
    know what it is closer to the top end. A graph would be better,
    though.

    All the parts can only cold switch. That would seem to be a problem, >>especially for the power parts. How do you cold switch a circuit
    breaker?

    The two killers of MEMS relays have always been contacts frying and >>contacts sticking.

    Holy crap, I didn't spot that! Big downer.

    I'd love a good small-signal MEMS relay. No semiconductor switch can
    touch its Ron*Coff time constant, and free isolation is cool too. Even
    a 90 cent telecom relay wins there.

    Those Menlo things can probably hot switch low level analog stuff.

    I recently used a bunch of Analog Devices switches, ADRF5024, to
    switch some pulses around. Had to characterize them ourselves for DC operation... ADI was no help. They work fine, for $108 each.

    The signals come in at right angles, which dominated the whole PCB
    layout. Some really tiny SPST switches would be cool... put them
    anywhere. I like single opamps for the same reason.

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    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)