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Comparative study of RF MEMS micro-contact materials

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2012

Adrien Broué ,
Jérémie Dhennin ,
Pierre-Louis Charvet ,
Patrick Pons ,
Nourredine Ben Jemaa ,
Peter Heeb ,
Fabio Coccetti  and
Robert Plana
Adrien Broué*
Affiliation:
NOVAMEMS, 10 avenue de l'Europe, 31520 Ramonville Saint Agne, France. Phone: +33 561274688. LAAS-CNRS, 7 avenue du colonel Roche, 31077 Toulouse, France. Université de Toulouse UPS, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex 9, France.
Jérémie Dhennin
Affiliation:
NOVAMEMS, 10 avenue de l'Europe, 31520 Ramonville Saint Agne, France. Phone: +33 561274688.
Pierre-Louis Charvet
Affiliation:
CEA-LETI, MINATEC, 3 parvis Louis Néel, 38054 Grenoble Cedex 9, France.
Patrick Pons
Affiliation:
LAAS-CNRS, 7 avenue du colonel Roche, 31077 Toulouse, France. Université de Toulouse UPS, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex 9, France.
Nourredine Ben Jemaa
Affiliation:
IPR-Université de Rennes, CNRS 6251, 263 av. Général Leclerc, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France.
Peter Heeb
Affiliation:
NTB Interstate University of Applied Sciences of Technology, Werdenbergstrasse 4, Buchs CH-9471, Switzerland.
Fabio Coccetti
Affiliation:
NOVAMEMS, 10 avenue de l'Europe, 31520 Ramonville Saint Agne, France. Phone: +33 561274688.
Robert Plana
Affiliation:
LAAS-CNRS, 7 avenue du colonel Roche, 31077 Toulouse, France. Université de Toulouse UPS, 118 route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex 9, France.
*
Corresponding author: A. Broué Email: adrien.broue@novamems.com
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Abstract

A systematic comparison between several pairs of contact materials based on an innovative methodology early developed at NOVA MEMS is hereby presented. The technique exploits a commercial nanoindenter coupled with electrical measurements, and test vehicles specially designed to investigate the underlying physics driving the surface-related failure modes. The study provides a comprehensive understanding of micro-contact behavior with respect to the impact of low-to-medium levels of electrical current. The decrease of the contact resistance, when the contact force increases, is measured for contact pairs of soft material (Au/Au contact), harder materials (Ru/Ru and Rh/Rh contacts), and mixed configuration (Au/Ru and Au/Ni contacts). The contact temperatures have been calculated and compared with the theoretical values of softening temperature for each couple of contact materials. No softening behavior has been observed for mixed contact at the theoretical softening temperature of both materials. The enhanced resilience of the bimetallic contacts Au/Ru and Au/Ni is demonstrated.

Keywords

RF-MEMSmicro-contact materialsreliabilitytemperature
Type
Research Papers
Information
International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies , Volume 4 , Issue 4 , August 2012 , pp. 413 - 420
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and the European Microwave Association 2012

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References

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