Experimental and theoretical investigation of contact resistance and reliability of lateral contact type ohmic MEMS relays

Almeida, Lia; Ishikawa, Kōji; Yu, Qiang; Jackson, Robert L.; Ramadoss, Ramesh

doi:10.1117/12.659785

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Almeida et al [267,268] considered how scale-dependent properties could be important in the contact of microswitches in microelectromechanical systems. Their work used a stacked multiscale model rather than the statistical framework to consider rough surface contact and electrical contact resistance.…”

Section: Scale-dependent Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Elastic–Plastic Contact Mechanics

Ghaednia

Wang

Saha

et al. 2017

Applied Mechanics Reviews

220

120

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In typical metallic contacts, stresses are very high and result in yielding of the material. Therefore, the study of contacts which include simultaneous elastic and plastic deformation is of critical importance. This work reviews the current state-of-the-art in the modeling of single asperity elastic–plastic contact and, in some instances, makes comparisons to original findings of the authors. Several different geometries are considered, including cylindrical, spherical, sinusoidal or wavy, and axisymmetric sinusoidal. As evidenced by the reviewed literature, it is clear that the average pressure during heavily loaded elastic–plastic contact is not governed by the conventional hardness to yield strength ratio of approximately three, but rather varies according to the boundary conditions and deformed geometry. For spherical contact, the differences between flattening and indentation contacts are also reviewed. In addition, this paper summarizes work on tangentially loaded contacts up to the initiation of sliding. As discussed briefly, the single asperity contact models can be incorporated into existing rough surface contact model frameworks. Depending on the size of a contact, the material properties can also effectively change, and this topic is introduced as well. In the concluding discussion, an argument is made for the value of studying hardening and other failure mechanisms, such as fracture as well as the influence of adhesion on elastic–plastic contact.

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Section: Scale-dependent Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of Elastic–Plastic Contact Mechanics

Ghaednia

Wang

Saha

et al. 2017

Applied Mechanics Reviews

220

120

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“…Recent experimental findings suggest that liquid adhesion ͑humidity͒ causes stiction between the contact surfaces in the MEMS relay. 68 This force is given by 69,70 F meniscus = 4R␥ ST cos͑͒. ͑23͒…”

Section: Liquid Meniscus Adhesionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Laterally actuated multicontact MEMS relay fabricated using MetalMUMPS process: experimental characterization and multiscale contact modeling

Almeida

Ramadoss

Jackson

et al. 2007

J. Micro/Nanolith. MEMS MOEMS

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Multicontact MEMS relays laterally actuated using electrostatic comb-drive actuators are reported. The relay consists of a movable main beam anchored to the substrate using two identical folded suspension springs. Multicontact RF ports consist of five movable fingers connected to the movable main beam and six fixed fingers anchored to the substrate. Comb-drive actuators located at the top and bottom ends of the main beam enable bidirectional actuation of the RF contacts. The MEMS relays were fabricated using the MetalMUMPs process, which uses 20-m-thick electroplated nickel as the structural layer. A 3-m-thick gold layer was electroplated at the electrical contact surfaces. An example MEMS relay with planar contacts of area 80 m ϫ 20 m and a spacing of 10 m between the movable and fixed contacting surfaces is discussed. The overall size of the relay is approximately 3 mmϫ 3 mm. "Resistance versus applied voltage" characteristics of the MEMS relay have been measured for applied DC bias voltages in the range of 172 V to 220 V. A multiscale rough surface contact model was used to estimate the actual electrical contact resistance versus applied force curve of these devices. The multiscale model showed good qualitative agreement with the experimental measurements but requires more refinement to achieve good quantitative agreement.

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“…Almeida [5] developed MEMS relay based on the comb drive electrostatic actuators. In this study, the AE sensors as receivers with the capacitance change as the transduction principle are manufactured using…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In-Plane MEMS Acoustic Emission Sensors Development and Experimental Characterization

Saboonchi

Ozevin

2013

MEMS and Nanotechnology, Volume 5

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Damage initiation and growth in materials releases elastic waves, which can be detected by surface mounted acoustic emission (AE) transducers. In this paper, new MEMS comb-drive AE transducers, responsive to in-plane motion, manufactured using electroplating technique for highly elevated microstructure geometries are presented. The transduction principle is capacitance change achieved by area/gap change in two separate designs. Mechanism of spring orientation, dimensions and mass have been selected in such a way that they satisfy three design criteria as the frequency range of 100-200 kHz, 2-30 pF capacitance and the functionality under atmospheric pressure. The challenge of coupling the microstructure vibration in out-of-plane and in-plane directions is addressed with differential mode approach and frequency domain responses. The squeeze film damping is reduced with 8 μm gap between moving electrodes so that the transducers are operational under atmospheric pressure. The directional independence of the transducers to two orthogonal directions is demonstrated using laser source as the excitation signal. The Nd: Yag Q switch laser has 3 mm beam diameter and is focused on the top and the edge of the transducer package. The results show a distinct output signal for in-plane and out-of-plane motions due to the directional sensitivity of the MEMS transducers. IntroductionAcoustic emission (AE) method relies on propagating stress waves due to newly formed damage surfaces. Conventional piezoelectric sensors have bulky geometry and are sensitive to the wave motion in thickness mode and tangential mode due to lateral deformation of the sensor geometry. Understanding the propagating wave direction through differentiating orthogonal wave motions can improve the source localization and characterization. The comb drive sensors have interdigitized fingers formed by the stationary part known as stator and the moving part known as rotor [1]. Comb drive sensors created using Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) can be designed to be sensitive to tangential wave motion with respect to the structure that the sensor is attached. Harris et al.[2] designed comb drive sensor using the surface micromachining method for detecting the in-plane motion. However, the sensor has coupled response for in-plane and out-of-plane motions. The unwanted out-of-plane motion dominated the sensor response. The surface micromachining method has the limited thickness as 2 μm, which limits the sufficient separation of the resonant frequency modes of in-plane and out-of-plane motions. The lateral instability of the comb drive is a known problem [3].The metalMUMPs incorporates LIGA-like, thick metal electroplating and bulk/surface micromachining processes to develop thick metal layer. The process is available by Memscap Inc since 2003. The process has been implemented by several researchers in the literature. For instance, Tsai et al.[4] designed out-of-plane rotational platform using in-plane electrostatic comb drive actuators. Almeida [5] dev...

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Experimental and theoretical investigation of contact resistance and reliability of lateral contact type ohmic MEMS relays

Cited by 7 publications

References 0 publications

A Review of Elastic–Plastic Contact Mechanics

A Review of Elastic–Plastic Contact Mechanics

Laterally actuated multicontact MEMS relay fabricated using MetalMUMPS process: experimental characterization and multiscale contact modeling

In-Plane MEMS Acoustic Emission Sensors Development and Experimental Characterization

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