Real-time in situ electronic monitoring of dynamic contact behavior of MEMS high-g switches

This paper presents for the first time real-time contact monitoring of packaged high-g switches under acceleration loads up to 50,000 g. Such loads are typical in impact and pyroshock phenomena such as multistage rocket launches and earth penetrating weapons. Contact monitoring is performed using a fully electronic methodology utilizing an ultra low-power (<;60 μW) CMOS interface that is directly integrated to the MEMS chip and accurately senses the capacitance change around the contact region at a sampling rate greater than 500 kHz. Experimental and modeling results agree to within 5% for the switch closing time under high-g condition, confirming the validity of the measurement technique.