The Ideal Switch^®: Glass-Based Device with Demonstrated Reliability���Enabling the electrification of everything�Milliwatts-to-kilowatts, DC-to-light����Aric Shorey, Chris Keimel�

Agenda

• Overview of Menlo Microsystems and MEMS

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• Overview of volume manufacture and reliability of glass-based devices supply chain

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• Examples of Ideal Switch® applications

Who is Menlo Micro?

• A fabless Ideal Switch company based in Irvine, CA

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• Created in the R&D labs at GE

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• The world’s smallest, most reliable, most efficient micro-mechanical switch

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• Bringing disruptive performance to both Power and Communications (RF) systems

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• Manufacturing switched product innovation on glass

Smaller than a human hair, but can handle > 1000V

Today, switches are everywhere.

It’s the most ubiquitous electronic component.

In our homes.

• Managing our heat, AC, & lights.
• Our appliances are loaded with them.
• Circuit breakers that keep it all safe.

At work.

• Control the elevators, lighting, HVAC.
• All our computers, servers, comms.
• Manage factories and all equipment inside them.

In our cars.

• Unlock the doors and start the engine.
• Turn on and tune the radio.
• Control the wipers, windows.
• Manage the battery.

The world at large.

• Switches control the electricity flowing from power plants to the grid to our homes.
• Switches control the data zipping around the world to our computers and smartphones.

The see-through device: �Dive into the fabrication

The Ideal Switch’s proprietary beam is smaller than a human hair but can handle >400V

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The Ideal Switch’s proprietary packaging

Close-up of Menlo’s revolutionary MEMS switch chip scale packaged product with hermetic

Through-Glass-Via (TGV) technology

Side-view of Menlo’s MM5130 – production since Q4-2020

The future of efficient power switching, MM9xxx series (relative scale)

ELECTROMECHANICAL

SEMICONDUCTOR

Problem: It’s a "semi” conductor.

Significant power losses /“HEAT” through the switch

Problem: Slow, big, limited lifetime.

Significant power/“HEAT”

required to turn on

• Ultra-conductivity – metal to metal contact
• Reduces volume by > 99 %
• Reduces power > 99%
• Small, smart efficient solutions scalable to enable MWe capability

Glass MEMS Technology

Glass and TGV provide significant advantages for RF performance and SWaP

Current flows in from TGV on one side of switch and flows out from TGV on the other side

Advantages of Menlo’s all-glass packaging solution:

• Smaller package size relative to wire bond. (die size as low as 2.5 mm)
• >75% reduction in parasitics
• Devices with wide operational bandwidth (DC to >50 GHz)  

Highly Reliable

• >3B cycles spec, w/roadmap to >20B
• High-power capability

Through-Glass-Via

• Lower parasitic, lower resistance, small-size package, lowest cost
• New via technologies eliminate cracking of vias
• Demonstrated hermeticity through thermal excursions (>300C)
• Pass reliability testing such as thermal cycling (-40-125C)

Scalable & Versatile

• Small size 🡪 easy to scale costs down with production volume
• Standard Process Design Kit to create many products
• Short design cycles 🡪 faster time to market

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Ideal Switch® is a 2-glass layer device fabricated on 8” HPFS wafer

Menlo has established volume manufacture for metallization and wafer level bond and packaging of glass-based devices

• Wafers with ~15 layers fabricated in high purity fused silica (HPFS) in 200 mm format
• Utilize hermetic through glass via (TGV) technology
• Wafer level Au-Au thermal compression bond
• Established singulation processes
• Final package and test (CSP and SiP solutions)

Multiple packaging solutions

Chip scale packaging (CSP) and System in Package (SiP) solutions available

• Surface mountable CSP MEMS devices available
• SiP solutions packaged with driver
• Multiple bump options available

SiP ~8x8 mm

CSP ~2.5 x 2.5 mm

Back side – bumped and ready for assembly

Final Quality of Glass-based CSP

Device qualified with life testing and standard JEDEC testing

• Qualified to > 3B cycles
• Qualification is based on JEDEC (JESD47K) test methods common to the semiconductor industry
• RTOL
• HTOL-Hold Down (HD)
• Temp Cycle
• HTSL
• Electrical test (pass/fail)
• UHAST
• Mechanical Shock
• Vibration
• Package reliability

Median days to failure: ~70000 days

Median years to failure: 190 years

RF Switch Product Family: Covering DC to Millimeter Wave

MM5120 SP4T in normal SP4T mode

2.5mm x 2.5mm

18 GHz, 1dB BW

Insertion Loss

Isolation

20 dB ISO@18 GHz

10dB RL@18GHz

15dB RL@10GHz

Return Loss

Insertion Loss – 3B cycles

High-Performance GPU Testing

Ideal Switch® has become a critical part of the Test and Measurement of AI Chips

Challenges for testing in HPC

• Signal Integrity – Must minimize impedance mismatch and crosstalk
• Power Input – Need high current with minimal voltage droop/ripple/ground bounce and avoid thermal buildup
• Test Speed/Throughput – Test time must be minimized for cost and have built-in diagnostics to maintain throughput
• Thermal Stability – GPU generate heat even under test – solution must be stable with temperature
• Scalability and Cost – Scaling capacity without escalating cost requires new approaches (loopback testing, test on board, modular test strategies
• Versatility – Test solutions must support a number of SKU and form factors while minimizing changeover times and complexity

Application: High-Performance Computing�

The Ideal Switch has become a critical component of the test and measurement of AI chips

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MM5620

High-Performance Loopback Switch

• The solution: Miniature relay “systems” based on DP3T Ideal Switch® technology with integrated high speed loopback on production test boards
• Menlo’s low loss, high linearity, glass based Ideal Switch is critical for maintaining signal integrity at high data rates
• Minimizes complexity, maximizes coverage
• Allows collapse of multiple test modes into a single signal path and simplifies hardware and reduces cost of the test (>2x lower cost)
• Reduces need for SKU specific test solution
• The only solution available to fully test for quality required for data center AI/ML, GPUs, HPC CPUs & communication APUs
• Can be used to >80 Gbps
• Solutions are relevant to additional T&M applications (e.g. memory)

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Example of 80 Gbps, PAM4 eye-diagram performance on MM5627 loopback lane.

*Sarmiento, Yilmaz, Lee, Liu, Yang, “Addressing the Challenges for High-Performance GPU Testing, white paper (https://menlomicro.com/images/general/Menlo-NVIDIA__Whitepaper.pdf )

Application: Quantum Computing

Ideal Switch increases throughput >10x for cryogenic device characterization and calibration

• The Ideal Switch® is proving to be extremely valuable in Quantum Computing
• Devices need to be calibrated at cryogenic temperatures
• Conventional EMR switches are big, relatively slow, can damage LNA and use enough power to heat the dilution fridge
• Ideal Switch increases throughput by more than 10X for cryogenic device characterization/calibration

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*Spietz et al., “Cryogenic RF MEMS Switch With Electronic Calibration Capability”, IEEE Journal of Microwaves, 1/2026.

*Ranzani, Spietz, Popovic, Aumentado, “Two-port microwave calibration at millikelvin temperatures, Rev. Sci. Instrum., 84 (2013)

Menlo’s SP6T switch offers dramatic throughput improvements

Work with Purdue and NIST has shown Menlo’s Ideal Switch® is valuable for Quantum Computing applications

• All devices for Quantum Computing are fabricated for ~room temperature operation so each one must be calibrated to work at mKelvin (mK) temperatures
• You need to load many switches into the fridge at a time to maximize throughput
• Switches typically used in this application today increase the temperature in the fridge by 20 mK, or more, with each actuation, requiring hours of delays to test just 4 devices
• Several hours to characterize a few devices – dramatic reduction in throughput and a huge dissatisfier to some leaders in Quantum
• NIST has tested the Ideal Switch – switch actuation is estimated to be only a few nanoJoules and there is no heating of the fridge
• In fact, the switch can run at 50 Hz and still only see ~ 2 mK in temperature increase - 10x less than a single actuation from standard switch!

MM4250

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Emerging Application: Power distribution and control

Menlo has demonstrated active load control for a 0.5 MW advanced circuit breaker

• Menlo has been working on advanced circuit breaker technology for high-power distribution and control
• Recently achieved a major milestone of active load control of 0.5MW prototype
• Demonstrated load control of 1000 V / 500 A system
• Ability to scale 100s of MEMS switches in a single unit
• Ongoing work focuses on miniaturization

1000 V, 500A (0.5MW) prototype advanced circuit breaker

Ideal Switch efficiency avoids heat generation relative to semiconductor devices

Metal to metal contact avoids heat generation often seen in semiconductor devices

• Resistance/Temperature as a function of load for Ideal Switch (blue) and SiC-based (red) switch.
• The ohmic metal contacts of the MEMS switch result in near constant resistance across its operating temperature range while the SiC switches increase in temperature and begin to exhibit thermal runaway.
• Eliminates the need for bulky cooling hardware

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Summary

• Menlo has combined metal MEMS processing with glass to create next generation ohmic switch and established a full manufacturing process
• Glass based devices are manufacturable in volume and achieve JEDEC reliability standards
• Menlo’s Ideal Switch^® is a demonstration of best-in-class RF and Power switch performance for a MEMS switch

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• There are several volume applications today in high-performance computing and RF/MM-Wave

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• Power applications represent substantial future opportunity

Thank you!

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Aric B. Shorey, PhD

aric.shorey@menlomicro.com

Menlo Microsystems, Inc. ​�49 Discovery, Suite 150�Irvine, CA 92618 

www.menlomicro.com