Dielectric charging effects in

RF MEMS capacitive switches

Aurelian Crunteanu1, P. Blondy1, A. Pothier1, C. Champeaux2,
A. Catherinot2, P. Tristant2,
O. Vendier3, J. L. Cazaux3, L. Marchand4

1IRCOM- and 2SPCTS- UMR CNRS 6615 and 6638, Limoges, France
3Alcatel Alenia Space, Toulouse, France
4ESA-ESTEC, Nordwijk, The Netherlands

aurelian.crunteanu@ircom.unilim.fr

5th ESA Round Table on Micro/ Nano Technologies for Space, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 3-5 October 2005
 (RF- ) MEMS
Many types of devices and wide application areas
environment (sensors…)
biomedical devices (microfluidics, µ-TAS…)
imaging (displays…)
telecoms (high-frequencies components - RF-MEMS…)
astronomy and space (adaptive optics, communications…)

Key role in the ongoing miniaturization of future electronic modules

integration, scale reduction, low-cost fabrication
low insertion loss, low power consumption, high isolation
actuation: electrostatic, magnetic, thermal…

RF MEMS - still in a state of research and early development

• Packaging
• Compliance with environmental stress factors (temp, humidity, shocks/ vibrations…)
• Reliability

5th ESA Round Table on Micro/ Nano Technologies for Space, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 3-5 October 2005
 Contact- and dielectric-based
RF-MEMS switches
• Basic blocs components
•New materials investigation
•Reliability and increasing performance
• Complex tunable functions for RF applications using basic MEMS
components: filters and meta-materials, phase shifters, MEMS-based
reflect-array antennas….

1
1
1 2 1 3
2

2 2 3
Designed at IRCOM and realised at CEA LETI

Series configuration Shunt configuration

5th ESA Round Table on Micro/ Nano Technologies for Space, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 3-5 October 2005
 Contact- and dielectric-based
RF-MEMS switches
• Basic blocs components
•New materials investigation
•Reliability and increasing performance
• Complex tunable functions for RF applications using basic MEMS
components: filters and meta-materials, phase shifters, MEMS-based
reflect-array antennas….

1
1
1 2 1 3

2 3
2
2
Series configuration Shunt configuration

5th ESA Round Table on Micro/ Nano Technologies for Space, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 3-5 October 2005
 Example: reconfigurable filtering

Useful signal

f2 f1 frequency
Transmission (dB)

Reflexion (dB)

Frequency (GHz)

5th ESA Round Table on Micro/ Nano Technologies for Space, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 3-5 October 2005
 Reliability problems

• Device related (intrinsic- due to the mechanical nature, design…)

• Process related (materials, fabrication…)

• Stiction
•Metal-to-metal contact: degradation through electro-migration,
contamination
• humidity
• dielectric charging
• Buckling of the beam
• mechanical stress, temperature
• Creep

5th ESA Round Table on Micro/ Nano Technologies for Space, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 3-5 October 2005
 High power handling-
contact/ ohmic switches

Melt contact finger

Current balance on each

switch

Output

Input

5th ESA Round Table on Micro/ Nano Technologies for Space, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 3-5 October 2005
 Dielectric-based RF-MEMS
Typical applied voltage >20 Volts over 0.2 µm (~1 MV/cm)

Charge Injection + Trapping

Dielectric charging is the main failure mode of capacitive MEMS switches

• electrical trap generation
• changing the values of Vpull-in and Vpull-out
5th ESA Round Table on Micro/ Nano Technologies for Space, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 3-5 October 2005
 Test structure - fabrication

5th ESA Round Table on Micro/ Nano Technologies for Space, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 3-5 October 2005
 Dielectric materials

• BST – BaxSr1-xTiO3 , x = 2/3, amorphous, εr = 18 – 20

- low breakdown voltage ⇒ high thickness needed

• Al2O3- alumina, amorphous, εr = 9- 10

- high breakdown voltage for thinner layers thickness ~ 200 nm
- low temperature deposition
- good surface roughness
- limitation of OH chemical bonds (avoid charge accumulation)

• Deposition methods: PLD or PECVD

Key parameters: dielectric constant, voltage break-down for a given

thickness, roughness…

5th ESA Round Table on Micro/ Nano Technologies for Space, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 3-5 October 2005
 RF performances
S21 – up-state: isolation
Comparison BST/ Alumina S21 – down-state: insertion losses

Con/Coff ~20-30
Con/Coff ~ 180

5th ESA Round Table on Micro/ Nano Technologies for Space, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 3-5 October 2005
 Test bench for dielectric charging

Charging mechanisms:
• transfer and trapping of charges
• screening of the applied electric field
• actuation electrical force modification
• capacitance modification in time

• different polarization waveforms (sin, sq, triangular, user-defined …)

• transmitted power recordings ≈ capacitance variation during actuation

5th ESA Round Table on Micro/ Nano Technologies for Space, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 3-5 October 2005
 Hysteresis curves
• 200 nm-thick Al2O3 (PLD)
• triangle waveform (35 V amplitude, 270 Hz)

•cycling by measuring the evolution of Vpull-in, Vpull-out, dV= Vpull-in- Vpull-out when applying
polarization waveforms of different types, amplitudes or frequencies (= contact times)

5th ESA Round Table on Micro/ Nano Technologies for Space, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 3-5 October 2005
 Cycling

400 nm-thick Al2O3 (PECVD), 300 Hz, 39 V amplitude, ambient atmosphere

5th ESA Round Table on Micro/ Nano Technologies for Space, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 3-5 October 2005
 Summarizing…

• switch lifetime depends on:

• type of dielectric (charging/ discharging)
• breakdown voltage, thickness
• actuation voltage, frequency, waveform type, (contact time/ actuation
period, total contact time)

• identification of charging mechanisms – charging model?

• cycling: controlled atmosphere, stress factors (temp,
humidity…)
• standard tests development for space qualification

5th ESA Round Table on Micro/ Nano Technologies for Space, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 3-5 October 2005
 New materials vs. new designs

Aim: create conductive paths in the dielectric for faster discharging

How: doping with metals – metallic nano-clusters – LECBD technique

Materials: nc Co: Al2O3- 5%, 9%, 17% vol.

•MIM capacitances: I(V) curves for 200 nm-thick nc Co: Al2O3- 17% and 5% vol.
•SCLC- type conduction

5th ESA Round Table on Micro/ Nano Technologies for Space, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 3-5 October 2005
 New materials vs. new designs

Dielectric Air

•No trapping, no complicated actuation waveform

•No drift in C(V)
•No failure using unipolar bias
•Large structure
•Low on to off ratio

5th ESA Round Table on Micro/ Nano Technologies for Space, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 3-5 October 2005
 Proximity mode RF-MEMS Switch
• High-contrast switch Gap=3µm+3µm

Gap=3 µm

Gap=0.3 µm

• On/Off < 10 • On/Off > 10

5th ESA Round Table on Micro/ Nano Technologies for Space, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 3-5 October 2005
Proximity mode RF-MEMS Switch

Pull down electrode

Suspension arm

CPW line

5th ESA Round Table on Micro/ Nano Technologies for Space, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 3-5 October 2005
 Conclusions – RF MEMS switches

• Very good RF characteristics

• Proximity- contact MEMS switches can be a viable solution
to the charging problems

• Still a lot of work to do:

•Reliability
• fabrication (design, materials, stress…)
• characterization/ testing
• Packaging
• Space qualification

5th ESA Round Table on Micro/ Nano Technologies for Space, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 3-5 October 2005
 Collaborations
• IRCOM- & SPCTS- UMR CNRS – University of Limoges
• Alcatel Alenia Space
• ESA/ ESTEC
• DGA

5th ESA Round Table on Micro/ Nano Technologies for Space, Noordwijk, The Netherlands 3-5 October 2005