Charging characteristics of ultra-nano-crystalline diamond in RF MEMS capacitive switches

Author

Goldsmith, Charles ; Sumant, A. ; Auciello, O. ; Carlisle, J. ; Zeng, Hengli ; Hwang, James C. M. ; Palego, Cristiano ; Wang, W. ; Carpick, R. ; Adiga, V.P. ; Datta, Amitava ; Gudeman, Chris ; O´Brien, S. ; Sampath, Smita

Author_Institution

MEMtronics Corporation, Plano, United States

fYear

2010

fDate

23-28 May 2010

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

1

Abstract

Modifications to a standard capacitive MEMS switch process have been made to allow the incorporation of ultra-nano-crystalline diamond as the switch dielectric. The impact on electromechanical performance is minimal. However, these devices exhibit uniquely different charging characteristics, with charging and discharging time constants 5–6 orders of magnitude quicker than conventional materials. This operation opens the possibility of devices which have no adverse effects of dielectric charging and can be operated near-continuously in the actuated state without significant degradation in reliability.

Keywords

Art; Capacitors; Degradation; Dielectric devices; Dielectric materials; Laboratories; Microswitches; Radiofrequency microelectromechanical systems; Switches;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest (MTT), 2010 IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Anaheim, CA

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-6056-4

Electronic_ISBN

0149-645X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2010.5518076

Filename

5518076