Modeling predictions and experimental measurements were obtained to characterize the electro-mechanical response of radio frequency (RF) microelectromechanical (MEM) switches due to variations in surface roughness and finite asperity deformations. Three-dimensional surface roughness profiles were generated, based on a Weierstrass-Mandelbrot fractal representation, to match the measured roughness characteristics of contact bumps of manufactured RF MEMS switches. Contact asperity deformations due to applied contact pressures were then obtained by a creep constitutive formulation. The contact pressure is derived from the interrelated effects of roughness characteristics, material hardening and softening, temperature increases due to Joule heating and contact forces. This modeling framework was used to understand how contact resistance evolves due to changes in the real contact area, the number of asperities in contact, and the temperature and resistivity profiles at the contact points. The numerical predictions were qualitatively consistent with the experimental measurements and observations of how contact resistance evolves as a function of deformation time history. This study provides a framework that is based on integrated modeling and experimental measurements, which can be used in the design of reliable RF MEMS devices with extended life cycles.

A new modeling method has been proposed to investigate how the electrical conductivity of carbon nanotube (CNT) reinforced polymer composites are affected by tunneling distance, volume fraction, and tube aspect ratios. A search algorithm and an electrical junction identification method was developed with a percolation approach to determine conductive paths for three-dimensional (3D) carbon nanotube arrangements and to account for electron tunneling effects. The predicted results are used to understand the limitations of percolation theory and experimental measurements and observations, and why percolation theory breaks down for specific CNT arrangements.

It is shown that measured and calculated time-dependent electrical resistances of closed gold Ohmic switches in radio frequency microelectromechanical system ͑rf-MEMS͒ devices are well described by a power law that can be derived from a single asperity creep model. The analysis reveals that the exponent and prefactor in the power law arise, respectively, from the coefficient relating creep rate to applied stress and the initial surface roughness. The analysis also shows that resistance plateaus are not, in fact, limiting resistances but rather result from the small coefficient in the power law. The model predicts that it will take a longer time for the contact resistance to attain a power law relation with each successive closing of the switch due to asperity blunting. Analysis of the first few seconds of the measured resistance for three successive openings and closings of one of the MEMS devices supports this prediction. This work thus provides guidance toward the rational design of Ohmic contacts with enhanced reliabilities by better defining variables that can be controlled through material selection, interface processing, and switch operation.

No abstract

A unified physically based microstructural representation of f.c.c. crystalline materials has been developed and implemented to investigate the microstructural behaviour of f.c.c. crystalline aggregates under inelastic deformations. The proposed framework is based on coupling a multiple-slip crystal plasticity formulation to three distinct dislocation densities, which pertain to statistically stored dislocations (SSDs), geometrically necessary dislocations (GNDs) and grain boundary dislocations. This interrelated dislocation density formulation is then coupled to a specialized finite element framework to study the evolving heterogeneous microstructure and the localized phenomena that can contribute to failure initiation as a function of inelastic crystalline deformation. The GND densities are used to understand where crystallographic, non-crystallographic and cellular microstructures form and the nature of their dislocation composition. The SSD densities are formulated to represent dislocation cell microstructures to obtain predictions related to the inhomogeneous distribution of SSDs. The effects of the lattice misorientations at the grain boundaries (GBs) have been included by accounting for the densities of the misfit dislocations at the GBs that accommodate these misorientations. By directly accounting for the misfit dislocations, the strength of the boundary regions can be more accurately represented to account for phenomena associated with the effects of the GB strength on intergranular deformation heterogeneities, stress localization and the nucleation of failure surfaces at critical regions, such as triple junctions.