Title :
RF MEMS capacitive switches fabricated with HDICP CVD SiN/sub x/
Author :
Chang, C.H. ; Qian, J.Y. ; Cetiner, B.A. ; Xu, Q. ; Bachman, M. ; Kim, H.K. ; Ra, Y. ; De Flaviis, F. ; Li, G.P.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., California Univ., Irvine, CA, USA
Abstract :
The role of very low temperature (90-170/spl deg/C) high density inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition (HDICP CVD) process in RF MEMS switch fabrication is addressed. The results on SiN/sub x/ layers produced by both HDICP CVD and plasma enhanced CVD (PECVD) are compared in terms of surface roughness, breakdown voltage and RF MEMS switch performance. It is found that HDICP CVD can provide very thin (250 /spl Aring/) nitride layer having root mean square (rms) roughness value of 1.6 nm at very low temperature (90/spl deg/C). The breakdown strength is measured to be 9MV/cm A SiN/sub x/ layer with these characteristics improves the device reliability and dramatically increases its down position capacitance providing additional degree of freedom in RF MEMS switch design.
Keywords :
microactuators; plasma CVD; semiconductor device breakdown; semiconductor device reliability; semiconductor switches; silicon compounds; surface topography; 250 angstrom; 90 to 170 degC; RF MEMS capacitive switches; SiN/sub x/; breakdown strength; breakdown voltage; device reliability; down position capacitance; high density inductively coupled plasma chemical vapor deposition; surface roughness; Chemical vapor deposition; Fabrication; Plasma chemistry; Plasma density; Plasma temperature; Radiofrequency microelectromechanical systems; Rough surfaces; Silicon compounds; Surface roughness; Switches;
Conference_Titel :
Microwave Symposium Digest, 2002 IEEE MTT-S International
Conference_Location :
Seattle, WA, USA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-7239-5
DOI :
10.1109/MWSYM.2002.1011600
