Title :
Effect of Gas Pressure on the Lifetime of Capacitive RF MEMS Switches
Author :
Czarnecki, P. ; Rottenberg, X. ; Puers, R. ; de Wolf, I.
Author_Institution :
IMEC, Kapeldreef 75, B-3001, Leuven, Belgium; E.E. Dept. of KULeuven, Belgium
Abstract :
For the first time it is shown that the lifetime of capacitive RF MEMS switches depends on the ambient gas pressure. A change of the pressure causes a change of the electric strength of the gas and as a result electric discharging during the operation can occur. This indicates that insulator charging, the main failure mode in these switches, probably not only occurs upon contact between the top electrode and the insulator, but also without contact, due to electron emission or electrode-gap breakdown.
Keywords :
Dielectrics; Electric breakdown; Electrodes; Electron emission; Life testing; Lifetime estimation; Radiofrequency microelectromechanical systems; Switches; Telecommunication switching; Voltage;
Conference_Titel :
Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 2006. MEMS 2006 Istanbul. 19th IEEE International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Istanbul, Turkey
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-9475-5
DOI :
10.1109/MEMSYS.2006.1627943
