Experimental Studies of Contact Detachment Delay in Microrelays for Logic Applications

Author

Yenhao Chen ; I-Ru Chen ; Chuang Qian ; Peschot, Alexis ; Liu, Tsu-Jae King

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Univ. of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA

Volume

62

Issue

8

fYear

2015

fDate

Aug. 2015

Firstpage

2695

Lastpage

2699

Abstract

The abrupt switching behavior of mechanical switches makes it imperative to ensure that they turn OFF more rapidly than they turn ON. In a complementary logic circuit, slower turn-OFF than turn-ON could lead to the formation of a direct current path between the power supply and the ground, which would result in undesirable dynamic power dissipation during signal transitions. In this brief, the contact detachment delay (τ_CD) of microrelays is systematically characterized and investigated. τ_CD is shown to be correlated with contact adhesive force and the mechanical properties of the contact materials; τ_CD can also be reduced by ultrathin-oxide coating and contact area scaling.

Keywords

logic circuits; microrelays; contact adhesive force; contact area scaling; contact detachment delay; contact materials; logic circuit; mechanical properties; mechanical switches; microrelays; power dissipation; power supply; signal transitions; ultrathin-oxide coating; Adhesives; Delays; Electrodes; Force; Metals; Microrelays; Contact detachment delay; crowbar current; microrelay; pull-in delay; reliability; reliability.;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Devices, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9383

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TED.2015.2446960

Filename

7154430