Micro-Electromechanical-System (MEMS) based switches for power applications

Keimel, Chris; Claydon, Glenn; Li, Bo; Park, John; Valdes, Marcelo E.

doi:10.1109/icps.2011.5890885

Cited by 13 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…None failed after refill, indicating that pump down and chamber backfill did not affect yield. After bakeout/chamber refill, resistance decreased by [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] both for Pt and RuO 2 devices. This indicates that the bakeout procedure was effective in desorbing some surface contamination.…”

Section: Test Chamber and Protocolmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Design, fabrication, performance and reliability of Pt- and RuO₂-coated microrelays tested in ultra-high purity gas environments

Boer

Czaplewski

Baker

et al. 2012

J. Micromech. Microeng.

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We have fabricated, tested and analyzed the reliability of Pt-and RuO 2 -coated ohmic microrelays in ultra-high purity gas environments. RuO 2 -coated relays could survive 3 × 10 8 contact cycles without electrical degradation, while Pt-coated devices degraded after 10 5 cycles. Thermally actuated microrelays were fabricated using a process that employed a polysilicon surface-micromachined substructure. After releasing the devices, just a few blanket metal depositions were required to create the different coatings. This method allowed direct comparisons between different coating materials, and was enabled by a self-aligned shadow mask that provides electrical isolation between different traces. Testing was performed in a clean environment achieved through in situ ultra-high vacuum bakeouts, chamber cooling to <5 × 10 −9 Torr and chamber refill with ultra-high purity gases. The RuO 2 coatings were formed by two avenues-reactive sputtering and thermal oxidation. No significant difference in contact resistance or reliability was detected for these two deposition methods. For all coatings, post-test analysis by scanning electron microscopy and Auger electron spectroscopy indicated no difference in carbon concentration on real contact versus non-contacting areas, implying that carbon did not play a role in limiting the switches' reliability. The Pt-coated switch reliability limit was attributed to surface wear rather than to the growth of a contaminating film. For the RuO 2 switches, trace resistance was reduced by ten times using an Al underlayer, so that the total device resistance was compatible with commercial device requirements. Because RuO 2 is expected to be resistant to hydrocarbon contamination, this work shows that the RuO 2 coating provides a promising path toward achieving ultra-high reliability ohmic microswitches.

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Section: Test Chamber and Protocolmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ohmic microswitches are of interest in communication applications such as phased array radars [1,2] and cell phones [3,4], and in switching applications such as in automatic test equipment [5][6][7], nanoelectronics [8,9] and electrical power [10,11]. Biomedical [12] and automotive [13] applications have also been proposed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design, fabrication, performance and reliability of Pt- and RuO₂-coated microrelays tested in ultra-high purity gas environments

Boer

Czaplewski

Baker

et al. 2012

J. Micromech. Microeng.

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“…The unique feature of this proposed logic gates is that the basic mechanical actuator is customized in its structure to function as specific logic gates depending upon the given inputs. The proposed logic gates can be used to build a non-volatile memory circuit (Boodhoo et al, 2013;Ranganathan et al, 2013), oscillators (Munoz-Gamarra et al, 2012, signal processing circuit for low-frequency sensor applications (Chakraborty and Bhattacharyya, 2010), sequential logic circuits (Venkatasubramanian et al, 2013) and switches for power applications (Keimel et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and simulation of electro-thermal compliant MEMS logic gates

Pandiyan

Uma

Umapathy

2018

COMPEL

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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to design an out-of-plane micro electro-thermal-compliant actuator based logic gates which work analogously to complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) based logic gates. The proposed logic gates used a single-bit mechanical micro ETC actuator per logic instead of using 6-14 individual transistors as in CMOS. Design/methodology/approachA complete analytical modelling is performed on a single ETC vertical actuator, and a relation between the applied voltage and the out-of-plane deflection is derived. Its coupled electro-thermo-mechanical analysis is carried out using micro electro mechanical system (MEMS) CAD tool CoventorWare to illustrate its performance. FindingsThis paper reports analytical and numerical simulation of basic MEMS ETC actuator-based logic gates. The proposed logic gate operates on 5 V, which suits well with conventional CMOS logic, which in turn reduces the power consumption of the device. Originality/valueThe proposed logic gates uses a single-bit MEMS ETC actuator per logic instead of using more transistors as in CMOS. The unique feature of this proposed logic gates is that the basic mechanical ETC actuator is customized in its structure to function as specific logic gates depending upon the given inputs.

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“…Metal contact RF MEMS switches have received attention lately due to their potential applications in communications [1], general switching [2] and digital logic [3]. Metal contact switches have low on-resistance, high isolation, and are suitable for signals with frequencies ranging from dc to millimeter wave (100 GHz) and beyond [4][5][6][7][8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hot switching damage mechanisms in MEMS contacts—evidence and understanding

Basu¹,

Hennessy²,

Adams³

et al. 2014

J. Micromech. Microeng.

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Using an AFM-based test setup, experiments were performed on Ru microcontacts under a variety of leading and trailing edge hot switching conditions, including different voltages, different currents, different polarities (including bipolar and ac up to 20 MHz), and different approach and separation rates. It was found that hot switching damage is a complex phenomenon for microcontacts. It consists of a number of different mechanisms occurring simultaneously to different degrees depending on the hot switching conditions. It was determined through a combination of experiments and models that the mechanisms leading to contact erosion operate when the electrodes are separated by less than a few Å or are barely touching. For leading edge hot switching, i.e. hot switching when the contacts are closing, the main damage mechanism was found to be associated with currents less than 0.15 mA. Pre-contact currents were observed on uncleaned contacts and were not found to contribute to contact damage. Despite the damage caused by hot switching, it was found that unless the contact material is almost or completely eroded, hot switching does not lead to high contact resistance or high adhesion on Ru contacts. Under bipolar hot switching conditions, microcontacts with a 400 μN contact force maintained a contact resistance of less than 1 Ω and a pull-off force less than 60 μN for more than 100 million cycles.

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Micro-Electromechanical-System (MEMS) based switches for power applications

Cited by 13 publications

References 14 publications

Design, fabrication, performance and reliability of Pt- and RuO₂-coated microrelays tested in ultra-high purity gas environments

Design, fabrication, performance and reliability of Pt- and RuO₂-coated microrelays tested in ultra-high purity gas environments

Design and simulation of electro-thermal compliant MEMS logic gates

Hot switching damage mechanisms in MEMS contacts—evidence and understanding

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Micro-Electromechanical-System (MEMS) based switches for power applications

Cited by 13 publications

References 14 publications

Design, fabrication, performance and reliability of Pt- and RuO2-coated microrelays tested in ultra-high purity gas environments

Design, fabrication, performance and reliability of Pt- and RuO2-coated microrelays tested in ultra-high purity gas environments

Design and simulation of electro-thermal compliant MEMS logic gates

Hot switching damage mechanisms in MEMS contacts—evidence and understanding

Contact Info

Product

Resources

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Design, fabrication, performance and reliability of Pt- and RuO₂-coated microrelays tested in ultra-high purity gas environments

Design, fabrication, performance and reliability of Pt- and RuO₂-coated microrelays tested in ultra-high purity gas environments