Reliability of Electrostatically Actuated RF MEMS Switches

Author

Hwang, James C M

Author_Institution

Lehigh Univ., Bethlehem

fYear

2007

fDate

9-11 Dec. 2007

Firstpage

168

Lastpage

171

Abstract

The reliability of electrostatically actuated RF MEMS switches is reviewed with emphasis on recent advancements. Both ohmic and capacitive switches have been operated for more 100-billion cycles without failure. When they do fail, ohmic switches tend to fail catastrophically by stiction, whereas capacitive switches often degrade gradually through charging of their dielectric insulators. Approaches to mitigate and model dielectric charging are then presented.

Keywords

electrostatic devices; microswitches; ohmic contacts; reliability; RF MEMS switch reliability; charge injection; dielectric charging mitigation; dielectric films; electrostatically actuated MEMS switch; microelectromechanical devices; ohmic contacts; Chemicals; Conductivity; Contact resistance; Dielectrics; Microelectromechanical devices; Micromechanical devices; Radiofrequency microelectromechanical systems; Stress; Surface resistance; Switches; Charge injection; contacts; dielectric films; dielectric materials; microelectromechanical devices; ohmic contacts; switches;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Radio-Frequency Integration Technology, 2007. RFIT 007. IEEE International Workshop on

Conference_Location

Rasa Sentosa Resort

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-1307-2

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-1308-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/RFIT.2007.4443942

Filename

4443942