Reliability of MEMS capacitive switches

Author

Hwang, James C. M. ; Goldsmith, C.L.

Author_Institution

Lehigh Univ., Bethlehem, PA, USA

fYear

2013

fDate

14-18 April 2013

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

This paper reviews the progress over the past decade in improving the reliability of MEMS capacitive switches. The emphasis is on mitigating the dielectric-charging problem as it currently limits the lifetime of these switches. The most critical is to distinguish charging of the dielectric surface from that of the dielectric bulk, and then mitigate them separately. Once surface charging is eliminated and bulk charging is greatly reduced, the switch lifetime can be prolonged almost indefinitely by using an intelligent closed-loop CMOS control circuit. This will facilitate the use of MEMS capacitive switches in military and commercial systems.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; integrated circuit reliability; microswitches; surface charging; MEMS capacitive switches; bulk charging; dielectric bulk; dielectric surface charging; intelligent closed-loop CMOS control circuit; reliability; switch lifetime; Control systems; Dielectrics; Micromechanical devices; Microwave theory and techniques; Radio frequency; Reliability; Surface charging; Dielectric films; dielectric materials; micro-electromechanical systems; microwave devices; reliability; switches;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Wireless Symposium (IWS), 2013 IEEE International

Conference_Location

Beijing

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEEE-IWS.2013.6616841

Filename

6616841