The in-situ wear of a hot and cold switched Au on Au coated MWCNT electrical contact for a MEMS switch application
The in-situ wear of a hot and cold switched Au on Au coated MWCNT electrical contact for a MEMS switch application
The electrical contacts in metal-metal MEMS switches are normally made from thin (< 1 μm) metallic film, e.g. (Au). The low contact force in a MEMS device results in a small area for conduction; to increase the area, a composite contact material has been developed. Sputter coated Au, applied to vertically-aligned multi-walled carbon nanotubes, (Au-MWCNT composite), has been shown to increase contact area and extend switching lifetime by orders of magnitude. In this study the Au-MWCNT composite contact is paired with a
Au coated hemisphere contact under a contact force of 150 µN, in an In-situ Contact Evolution (ICE) apparatus, to evaluate the durability of the contacts for two DC switching conditions; cold switching, at 4 V, 4 µA, (16 µW) and hot switching at 4 V, 50 mA (200mW). Under cold switching the contacts are shown to maintain a low stable resistance for 4 Billion cycles. The result leads to a re-evaluation of an established fine transfer model, used to predict switching life times.
MEMS switching, cold switching cycles, fine transfer model
Mcbride, John
d9429c29-9361-4747-9ba3-376297cb8770
Bull, Thomas
f3f00de4-1bfa-42c4-b957-dbd95a1a9aa2
22 August 2019
Mcbride, John
d9429c29-9361-4747-9ba3-376297cb8770
Bull, Thomas
f3f00de4-1bfa-42c4-b957-dbd95a1a9aa2
Mcbride, John and Bull, Thomas
(2019)
The in-situ wear of a hot and cold switched Au on Au coated MWCNT electrical contact for a MEMS switch application.
IEEE Holm 2019, The Pfister Hotel, Milwaukee, United States.
15 - 18 Sep 2019.
8 pp
.
Record type:
Conference or Workshop Item
(Paper)
Abstract
The electrical contacts in metal-metal MEMS switches are normally made from thin (< 1 μm) metallic film, e.g. (Au). The low contact force in a MEMS device results in a small area for conduction; to increase the area, a composite contact material has been developed. Sputter coated Au, applied to vertically-aligned multi-walled carbon nanotubes, (Au-MWCNT composite), has been shown to increase contact area and extend switching lifetime by orders of magnitude. In this study the Au-MWCNT composite contact is paired with a
Au coated hemisphere contact under a contact force of 150 µN, in an In-situ Contact Evolution (ICE) apparatus, to evaluate the durability of the contacts for two DC switching conditions; cold switching, at 4 V, 4 µA, (16 µW) and hot switching at 4 V, 50 mA (200mW). Under cold switching the contacts are shown to maintain a low stable resistance for 4 Billion cycles. The result leads to a re-evaluation of an established fine transfer model, used to predict switching life times.
Text
Holm 2019_JMcB_ paper 27
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Published date: 22 August 2019
Venue - Dates:
IEEE Holm 2019, The Pfister Hotel, Milwaukee, United States, 2019-09-15 - 2019-09-18
Keywords:
MEMS switching, cold switching cycles, fine transfer model
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 435993
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/435993
PURE UUID: 22bd929f-a375-4a92-849d-899b9c401931
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Date deposited: 26 Nov 2019 17:30
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 02:35
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Author:
Thomas Bull
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