Title :
Silicon MEMS tunable capacitors operating in dielectric fluid
Author :
McCormick, D.T. ; Li, Z. ; Tien, N.C.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., California Univ., Davis, CA, USA
Abstract :
Theoretical and experimental results of a dielectric fluid application for electrostatic, micromachined tunable capacitors are presented. Tunable comb-drive based capacitors were tested and characterized in both air and transformer oil with a dielectric constant (/spl epsi//sub r/) of 2.29. In oil the capacitors exhibit a factor of /spl epsi//sub r/ increase in capacitance as well as tuning range. The dielectric fluid also provides significantly higher breakdown voltage and increased, tunable mechanical damping.
Keywords :
capacitance; capacitors; electric breakdown; micromechanical devices; permittivity; silicon-on-insulator; Si-SiO/sub 2/; breakdown voltage; capacitance; dielectric constant; dielectric fluid; micromachined tunable capacitors; silicon MEMS tunable capacitors; tunable comb-drive based capacitors; tunable mechanical damping; Capacitance; Capacitors; Damping; Dielectric constant; Electrostatics; Micromechanical devices; Oil insulation; Petroleum; Silicon; Testing;
Conference_Titel :
TRANSDUCERS, Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems, 12th International Conference on, 2003
Conference_Location :
Boston, MA, USA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-7731-1
DOI :
10.1109/SENSOR.2003.1215613
