Lifetime characteristics of ohmic MEMS switches

John Maciel; Sumit Majumder; Richard Morrison; James Lampen

doi:10.1117/12.522759

23 December 2003 Lifetime characteristics of ohmic MEMS switches

John Maciel, Sumit Majumder, Richard Morrison, James Lampen

Proceedings Volume 5343, Reliability, Testing, and Characterization of MEMS/MOEMS III; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.522759
Event: Micromachining and Microfabrication, 2004, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

In the future, MEMS switches will be important building blocks for designing phase shifters, smart antennas, cell phones and switched filters for military and commercial markets, to name a few. Low power consumption, large ratio of off-impedance to on-impedance and the ability to be integrated with other electronics makes MEMS switches an attractive alternative to other mechanical and solid-state switches. Radant MEMS has developed an electrostatically actuated broadband ohmic microswitch that has applications from DC through the microwave region. The microswitch is a 3-terminal device based on a cantilever beam and is fabricated using an all-metal, surface micromachining process. It operates in a hermetic environment obtained through a wafer-bonding process. We have developed PC-based test stations to cycle switches and measure lifetime under DC and RF loads. Best-case lifetimes of 10¹¹ cycles have been achieved in T0-8 cans (a precursor to our wafer level cap) while greater than 10¹⁰ cycles have been achieved in the wafer level package. Several switches from different lots have been operated to 10¹⁰ cycles. Current typical lifetime exceeds 2 billion cycles and is limited by contact stiction resulting in stuck-closed failures. Stuck-closed failures can be intermittent with a large number of switches continuing to operate with occasional sticks beyond several billion cycles. To eliminate contact stiction, we need to better control the ambient gas composition in the die cavity. We expect lifetime to improve as we continue to develop and optimize the wafer capping process. We present DC and RF lifetime data under varying conditions.

Citation Download Citation

John Maciel, Sumit Majumder, Richard Morrison, and James Lampen "Lifetime characteristics of ohmic MEMS switches", Proc. SPIE 5343, Reliability, Testing, and Characterization of MEMS/MOEMS III, (23 December 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.522759

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available