A Ferrofluidically Actuated Liquid-Metal RF Switch

Abstract

Ferrofluidic actuation of liquid metal, demonstrated for the first time on an RF device, employs the magnetic response of a low-loss hydrocarbon-based ferrofluid for a simple RF switch. The ferrofluid is shown to reduce losses by an average of 4.9 dB from 50 MHz to 20 GHz compared to a lossy aqueous solution commonly used in existing actuation methods for liquid metal. These results offer a promising alternative for liquidmetal reconfigurable RF circuits.