Fabrication and thermal stability characterization of Ru electrode used for high power contact RF MEMS switch

Author

Hongze Zhang ; Zhihong Li

Author_Institution

Nat. Key Lab. of Nano/Micro Fabrication Technol., Peking Univ., Beijing, China

fYear

2013

fDate

7-10 April 2013

Firstpage

340

Lastpage

343

Abstract

This paper presents the fabrication and thermal stability of the Ru electrode used for high power Ru-Au contact RF MEMS switch with microspring contact design. Here we develop a new process with bilayer lift-off and strain release layer to get the 3000 Å Ti/Au/Ru electrode with excellent smooth edge for high power handling and low loss. Furthermore, the thermal test at 400°C , 500°C and 600°C over 1 hour has been done. Investigation of the surface with SEM and EDX shows that the electrode has a good thermal stability at 400°C, which is proper for high power handling.

Keywords

X-ray chemical analysis; electrical contacts; electrodes; gold alloys; microfabrication; microswitches; ruthenium alloys; scanning electron microscopy; thermal stability; titanium alloys; EDX; SEM; TiAuRu; bilayer lift-off; electrode fabrication; high power contact RF MEMS switch; high power handling; microspring contact design; strain release layer; temperature 400 degC; temperature 500 degC; temperature 600 degC; thermal stability characterization; thermal test; time 1 hour; Contacts; Electrodes; Gold; Microswitches; Radio frequency; Strain; Thermal stability; Ru-Au contact; bilayer lift-off; strain release; thermal staiblity;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Nano/Micro Engineered and Molecular Systems (NEMS), 2013 8th IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Suzhou

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4673-6351-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/NEMS.2013.6559746

Filename

6559746