New micromachined membrane switches in silicon technology

Author

Hiltmann, Kai ; Schumacher, Axel ; Guttmann, Kai ; Lemp, Engelbert ; Sandmaier, Hermann ; Lang, Walter

Author_Institution

HSG-IMIT, Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany

fYear

2001

fDate

2001

Firstpage

117

Lastpage

121

Abstract

This paper presents a new generation of micromachined membrane switches containing a glass substrate and a silicon membrane. Upon external actuation, two planar substrate contacts are closed by a metal layer deposited on the switching membrane. The switching position is constant to better than 1 μm and has been observed to move about 0.7 μm over the achieved lifetime of 20 million electromechanical cycles under electrical loads of 12 V and 10 mA

Keywords

elemental semiconductors; membranes; microactuators; micromachining; semiconductor device metallisation; semiconductor device reliability; semiconductor device testing; semiconductor switches; silicon; 10 mA; 12 V; Si; electrical loads; electromechanical cycles; external actuation; glass substrate; metal layer; micromachined membrane switches; planar substrate contacts; silicon membrane; silicon technology; switching membrane; switching position; Biomembranes; Contacts; Etching; Glass; Manufacturing; Metallization; Relays; Silicon; Substrates; Switches;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electrical Contacts, 2001. Proceedings of the Forty-Seventh IEEE Holm Conference on

Conference_Location

Montreal, Que.

Print_ISBN

0-7803-6667-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/HOLM.2001.953198

Filename

953198