RF MEMS Switches With $\hbox{RuO}_{2}$ –$\hbox{Au}$ Contacts Cycled to 10 Billion Cycles

Czaplewski, David A.; Nordquist, C.D.; Patrizi, Gary A.; Kraus, G.M.; Cowan, William D.

doi:10.1109/jmems.2013.2239256

Cited by 48 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…This may improve if the testing is done under vacuum encapsulation which is viable at packaging level and may prove valuable to such devices [10]. Other alternative solution like contact enhance coating like Au, Pt, and RuO 2 may solve this issue but the fabrication of such small device will be extremely challenging [11], [12]. The on-off current ratio of 10 5 is demonstrated with 100-μA current compliance as shown in Fig.…”

Section: Experiments Results and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Bistable Electrostatic Silicon Nanofin Relay for Nonvolatile Memory Application

Soon

Singh

et al. 2013

J. Microelectromech. Syst.

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We present a nanoelectromechanical (NEM) relay that is capable of demonstrating two stable states without on-hold power due to the influence of van der Waals force. This is realized by leveraging a silicon nanofin (SiNF) as a relay that can switch between two lateral terminals. The smallest dimension of the SiNF is 80-nm width by 2-μm length. The SiNF is able to maintain its geometrical position even after the bias voltage is turned off. Bistable hysteresis behavior with pull-in voltage (V PI ) and reset voltage (V RESET ) as low as 8.4 and 10.1 V is measured. The nanoscale footprint of this device shows great potential for high-density nonvolatile memory applications.[ 2013-0109]Index Terms-Nanoelectromechanical systems, relay, switch, van der Waals, nonvolatile memory, Bistable, electrostatic. I. IntroductionThe ever quest in CMOS scaling has expanded the exploration boundary beyond conventional transistor, listing from quantum devices, ultrathin body silicon on insulator (SOI), fin-FET, and so on. Most devices leverage on the transportation of electrons or the same to determine the on-off criteria [1], [2]. Until recently, nanoelectromechanical (NEM) relay has drawn great attention due to its exceptional properties. NEM relay is a physically actuated nanoscale mechanical switch that does not rely on transportation or storage of charges. Instead, NEM relay relies on mechanical switching motion and geometrical shape to replicate logic operation in transistor and solid state nonvolatile memory (NVM) and its advantages include extremely low off-state leakage current, steep sub-threshold slopes, and capability of high temperature operation [3]- [5]. It is already reported that the NEMS relay can complement CMOS circuits resulting in faster operation and erasing speed [6], [7]. Besides that, reports suggest that the NEM switches can overcome poor performance usually at the extremes of temperature because of their mechanical switching nature

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Section: Experiments Results and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Bistable Electrostatic Silicon Nanofin Relay for Nonvolatile Memory Application

Soon

Singh

et al. 2013

J. Microelectromech. Syst.

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“…For example, in [3], Mo is used in RF MEMS capacitive switches, which in turn exhibit high ambient temperature stability and good mechanical reliability that exceeds 20 billion cycles of lifetime test without failure. In [4], RuO 2 -Au contact metallurgy has been studied to avoid contact adhesion in RF MEMS switches, which increases the lifetime of the switches to more than 10 billion cycles. In addition, as opposed to single metals, metal alloys with excellent creep-resistant properties are also promising to be applied to RF MEMS, metallic thin films, or other industrial areas [5], [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Creep-resistant nanocrystalline gold-vanadium alloyed microcorrugated diaphragms (MCDS)

Yang²,

Psychogiou³

et al. 2015

2015 Transducers - 2015 18th International Conference on Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems (TRANSDUCERS)

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This paper presents new microcorrugated diaphragms (MCDs) capable of achieving large displacements (>20 µm) with the lowest reported stress relaxation today. These MCDs are fabricated by co-sputtering of gold (Au) and vanadium (V) followed by a 2-hour annealing at 300 °C. Compared to conventional RF MEMS sputtered Au films, the reported MCDs exhibit a 1.8× and a 10.5× lower stress relaxation rates at the 3rd and the 12th hour, respectively. The developed Au-V films demonstrate more than 50% smaller average grain size than pure Au, excellent process compatibility, and significantly lower stress relaxation rate. As a result, they are very promising in improving reliability issues of widely tuned RF MEMS devices.

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“…In the past, significant efforts have been devoted to boost the lifetime (primarily in terms of cycling time) of RF-MEMS contact switches. For example, the Radant MEMS switch can be cycled up to 1.5 trillion times [16] and the Sandia MEMS switch was cycled up to 10 billion times [17]. However, both switches were characterized under the cold-switching condition, in which the RF power is turned off before switching events occur.…”

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confidence: 99%

Extension of the Hot-Switching Reliability of RF-MEMS Switches Using a Series Contact Protection Technique

Wang

Bey

Liu

2016

IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Techn.

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Abstract-This paper presents a design methodology for drastically improving the hot-switching reliability of contact-type radio frequency micro-electromechanical (RF-MEMS) switches. In the proposed design, sacrificial contacts are placed in parallel with low-resistance contacts to significantly reduce the electric field across the latter. The lower field strength drastically reduces the contact degradation associated with field induced material transfer. Theoretical and numerical modeling show that the proposed protection scheme introduces minimal, if any, impact on the switch's RF performance. To realize the protection scheme, we introduce a novel mechanical design that allows the correct protection actuation sequence to be realized using a single actuator and bias electrode. As a demonstration, several 0-40 GHz RF-MEMS switches are fabricated using a robust copper sacrificial layer technique. Compared with unprotected switches, the protected switch design exhibits over 100 times improvement in hot-switching lifetime. In particular, we demonstrate 100-150 million cycle lifetime at 1 W hot-switching and 50 million cycles at 2 W hot-switching before catastrophic failure, measured in open-air lab environment. Further optimization of the structural design and contact materials is likely to further increase the hot-switching lifetime.

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RF MEMS Switches With $\hbox{RuO}_{2}$ –$\hbox{Au}$ Contacts Cycled to 10 Billion Cycles

Cited by 48 publications

References 38 publications

A Bistable Electrostatic Silicon Nanofin Relay for Nonvolatile Memory Application

A Bistable Electrostatic Silicon Nanofin Relay for Nonvolatile Memory Application

Creep-resistant nanocrystalline gold-vanadium alloyed microcorrugated diaphragms (MCDS)

Extension of the Hot-Switching Reliability of RF-MEMS Switches Using a Series Contact Protection Technique

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