Micro-switches with sputtered Au, AuPd, Au-on-AuPt, and AuPtCu alloy electric contacts

Author

Coutu, R.A., Jr. ; Kladitis, P.E. ; Cortez, R. ; Strawser, R.E. ; Crane, R.L.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Air Force Inst. of Technol., Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, USA

fYear

2004

fDate

20-23 Sept. 2004

Firstpage

214

Lastpage

221

Abstract

This work is the first to report on a new analytic model for predicting micro-contact resistance and the design, fabrication, and testing of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) metal contact switches with sputtered bi-metallic (i.e. gold (Au)-on-Au-platinum (Pt), (Au-on-Au-(6%)Pt)), binary alloy (i.e. Au-palladium (Pd), (Au-(2%)Pd)), and tertiary alloy (i.e. Au-Pt-copper (Cu), (Au-(5%)Pt-(0.5%)Cu)) electric contacts. The micro-switches with bi-metallic and binary alloy contacts resulted in contact resistance between 1-2 Ω and, when compared to micro-switches with sputtered Au electric contacts, exhibited a 3.3 and 2.6 times increase in switching lifetime, respectively. The tertiary alloy exhibited a 6.5 times increase in switch lifetime with contact resistance ranging from 0.2-1.8 Ω.

Keywords

contact resistance; copper alloys; electrical contacts; gold; gold alloys; microswitches; palladium alloys; platinum alloys; sputtered coatings; 0.2 to 1.8 ohm; 1 to 2 ohm; Au; Au-AuPt; AuPd; AuPtCu; analytic model; binary alloy contacts; electric contacts; metal contact switches; microcontact resistance; microelectromechanical systems design; microelectromechanical systems fabrication; microelectromechanical systems testing; microswitches; sputtered bimetallic contact; switching lifetime; Contact resistance; Electric resistance; Fabrication; Gold alloys; Microelectromechanical systems; Micromechanical devices; Microswitches; Predictive models; Switches; System testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electrical Contacts, 2004. Proceedings of the 50th IEEE Holm Conference on Electrical Contacts and the 22nd International Conference on Electrical Contacts

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8460-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/HOLM.2004.1353120

Filename

1353120