Effect of packaging on dielectric charging in RF MEMS capacitive switches

Author

Peng, Zhen ; Palego, Cristiano ; Hwang, James C M ; Moody, Cody ; Malczewski, Andrew ; Pillans, Brandon W. ; Forehand, David I. ; Goldsmith, Charles L.

Author_Institution

Lehigh Univ., Bethlehem, PA, USA

fYear

2009

fDate

7-12 June 2009

Firstpage

1637

Lastpage

1640

Abstract

A novel technique was used to evaluate the effectiveness of packaging in maintaining a dry ambient atmosphere for electrostatically actuated RF MEMS capacitive switches and in preventing the charging of the dielectric surface after prolonged operation. It was found that as-packaged switches exhibited different degrees of surface charging, probably due to different amounts of moisture inadvertently sealed in the essentially hermetic packages. However, after the switches were delidded and baked dry, all switches showed minimum surface charging. The results imply that the switches can have consistently long lifetimes by improving the yield of the packaging process.

Keywords

microswitches; microwave switches; packaging; dielectric charging; dry ambient atmosphere maintenance; electrostatically actuated RF MEMS capacitive switches; hermetic packages; packaging effectiveness; Dielectrics; Electrodes; Humidity; Packaging; Radiofrequency microelectromechanical systems; Stress; Surface charging; Switches; Voltage; Wafer scale integration; Charge injection; dielectric films; dielectric materials; humidity; microelectromechanical devices; microwave devices; packaging; switches;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest, 2009. MTT '09. IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Boston, MA

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-2803-8

Electronic_ISBN

0149-645X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2009.5166027

Filename

5166027