Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) switches are attractive for radio frequency and microwave systems due to outstanding performance, but low reliability limits application of these devices. To date, a number of reliability problems are overcome, but some of them get little attention. This work describes the first experimental results on a novel failure mechanism of the MEMS switch with electrostatic actuation. The device is fabricated on a thermally oxidized silicon wafer with chromium adhesive layer. After several thousand working cycles, nanostructures containing adhesive material emerge at the gate. They coalesce into micron-sized defects that touch the beam during actuation and disturb normal operation. The material transfer also takes place at the substrate around the gate. This phenomenon was not reported in the literature, although Cr is widely used for microfabrication. The reasons for material transfer must be revealed in order to exclude this failure mechanism for MEMS devices.
In this work we report a new approach to the fabrication of metallic nanowire and nanonet structures on a-Si/SiO2/Si substrates by combine plasma etching processes. For the formation of Pt nanostructures we used a controlled two-step plasma etching in C4F8/Ar and SF6 plasma, which resulted in a self-formation of fluorocarbon nanowires and nanonets. Then, we used these nanostructures as nanoscale templates for 10 nm thin metallic nanowires, which were obtained with magnetron Pt film deposition, Ar plasma sputtering and Pt redeposition.
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