Conduction and Trapping in RF MEMS capacitive switches with a SiN layer

Author

Koszewski, Adam ; Souchon, Frederic ; Ouisse, Thierry

Author_Institution

CEA LETI MINATEC, Grenoble, France

fYear

2009

fDate

14-18 Sept. 2009

Firstpage

339

Lastpage

342

Abstract

This paper deals with dielectric charging phenomenon - a key failure mechanism for electrostatically actuated MEMS. Conduction mechanisms and trap properties of silicon nitride are investigated by current-voltage measurements on Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) capacitors and RF MEMS capacitive switches. Both structures show a similar behavior with two bulk-controlled conduction mechanisms: space-charge-limited current below 1.5 MV/cm and Poole-Frenkel conduction above 1.5 MV/cm. The number of trapped charges is extracted from the hysteresis of I-V sweeps and used to estimate the corresponding shift of the pull-in voltage on the switches. These results are in agreement with functional tests performed on the switches.

Keywords

MIM devices; Poole-Frenkel effect; capacitors; electrostatic actuators; failure analysis; microswitches; microwave switches; silicon compounds; space charge; wide band gap semiconductors; Poole-Frenkel conduction; RF MEMS capacitive switches; SiN; bulk-controlled conduction mechanisms; current-voltage measurement; electrostatically actuated MEMS; failure mechanism; metal-insulator-metal capacitors; pull-in voltage; silicon nitride; space-charge-limited current; trap properties; Current measurement; Dielectric measurements; Electrostatic measurements; Failure analysis; Mechanical factors; Metal-insulator structures; Micromechanical devices; Radiofrequency microelectromechanical systems; Silicon compounds; Switches;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Solid State Device Research Conference, 2009. ESSDERC '09. Proceedings of the European

Conference_Location

Athens

ISSN

1930-8876

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-4351-2

Electronic_ISBN

1930-8876

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ESSDERC.2009.5331578

Filename

5331578