Power handling capability is the most stringent specification for an RF switch. The dominant reason to limit the power handling capability is undesirable channel formation (leakage current) on off-state FEETs in the event of large signal input. To characterize leakage current and find the correlation between DC I-V measurement and RFP1 dB measurement, a new DC characterization method (Float FET I-V characterization method) reflecting RF switch operation is proposed. Based on the proposed Float FET I-V method, an experimental study on optimum dc bias point, MOSFET device design, and stacked-FETs device design is performed in order to achieve maximum power handling capability of the RF switch. In addition, compared to RF measurement tests that take a long time, the proposed characterization method rapidly evaluates the various off-state MOS-FET leakage current mechanisms affecting the power handling capability of the RF switch. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.