Title :
Influence of the height of Carbon Nanotubes on hot switching of Au/Cr-Au/MWCNT contact pairs
Author :
Liu, H. ; Lewis, A.P. ; Pu, S.H. ; Jiang, L. ; McBride, J.W.
Author_Institution :
Univ. of Southampton, Nusajaya, Malaysia
Abstract :
Gold coated Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotube (MWCNT) composites have been used for electrical contact surfaces in previous studies. It was shown that the composite could significantly improve switch lifetime, and exhibited potential as a useful contact material for MEMS switches. The reason is attributed to the contribution of the compressibility of the MWCNT forest, which creates a compliant layer under the gold films. In this study, experiments were performed for samples with different heights of MWCNT forests, namely 30 μm, 50 μm and 80 μm. The influence of MWCNT height on the switching behavior and lifetime were studied. An outcome of the work was that the sample with 80 μm height forests showed the longest lifetime, however the composites with 30 μm and 50 μm forest heights showed lower contact resistances, a parameter of high importance for MEMS switch applications.
Keywords :
chromium; contact resistance; electrical contacts; gold; microswitches; multi-wall carbon nanotubes; Au-Cr-Au; MEMS switch applications; MWCNT contact pairs; compliant layer; contact material; contact resistances; electrical contact surfaces; forest compressibility; gold coated multiwalled carbon nanotube composites; switch lifetime; switching behavior; Carbon nanotubes; Contact resistance; Gold; Surface treatment; Switches; Testing;
Conference_Titel :
Electronics Packaging Technology Conference (EPTC), 2014 IEEE 16th
Conference_Location :
Singapore
DOI :
10.1109/EPTC.2014.7028340
