RF Switch Matrix - Signal Routing

Signal Routing

There are two types of switches typically used in switch matrices: Coaxial Electromechanical Switches and Solid State Switches, also known as electronic switches. Coaxial electromechanical switches can be further divided into two categories based on their architecture, latching relay and non-latching relay.

Solid state switches come in three types: PIN diode, FET, and hybrid. The advantages of solid state switches over EM switches are:

• They have much faster switching speed (at least 10,000 times faster)
• They have an almost infinite life
• They are very stable and repeatable

On the other hand, since solid state switches have non-linear portions over their frequency range their bandwidth is limited.

An electronic switch (EM) provides better:

• insertion loss
• VSWR
• power handling
• isolation specifications.

For these reasons EM switches are used much more often in switch matrix designs.