Reliability of nanocrystalline diamond MEMS capacitive switches

L. Michalas (1) , Samuel Saada (2) , M. Koutsoureli (1) , Christine Mer-Calfati (2) , A. Leuliet (3) , P. Martins (3) , S. Bansropun (3) , G. Papaioannou (1) , P. Bergonzo (2) , A. Ziaei (3)

1 Solid State Physics Section
2 LCD-LIST - Laboratoire Capteurs Diamant
3 Thales Research and Technology [Palaiseau]

A solution to mitigate the dielectric charging and to improve reliability of RF MEMS switches is the replacement of the commonly used dielectrics with others that allow fast draining of the injected charges. One of the materials that have been successfully incorporated is diamond. The present paper presents both the charging and discharging process characteristics in MEMS having nanocrystalline diamond dielectric films. The study is performed by monitoring the charging and discharging current transient in MIM capacitors and the shift of the bias for minimum up state capacitance before and after progressively increasing stressing time tests. The results reveal that diamond is very promising material to improve the device reliability.

Keywords: MEMS capacitive switch; Dielectric charging; Reliability; Discharging process; Microwave integrated circuits; RF-MEMS; RF-MEMS switches; Electric switches; Nano-crystalline diamonds; Dielectric films; Diamond; thin film; MIM devices; Device reliability; Discharging current

Domains: Micro and nanotechnologies/Microelectronics; Materials Science [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

L. Michalas, Samuel Saada, M. Koutsoureli, Christine Mer-Calfati, A. Leuliet, et al.. Reliability of nanocrystalline diamond MEMS capacitive switches. 2013 European Microwave Integrated Circuit Conference, Oct 2013, Nuremberg, Germany. pp.364-367. ⟨cea-01844712⟩