Characterization of dielectric charging in RF MEMS capacitive switches

RF MEMS capacitive switches show great promise for use in wireless communication devices such as mobile phones, but the successful application of these switches is hindered by reliability concerns: charge injection in the dielectric layer (SiN) can cause irreversible stiction of the moving part of the switch. We present a new way to characterize charge injection. By stressing the dielectric with electric fields on the order of 1 MV/cm, we inject charge in the dielectric, and use a new method to measure the effects it has on the C-V curve. Instead of measuring the change in the pull-in voltage, this method measures the change in the voltage at which the capacitance is minimal. This way, no extra charge is injected during the measurement of the amount of injected charge, which reduces the effect it has on the tested switches, so that the effect of the intentionally induced stress voltage is not obscured by the measurement method

DMOS transistor dope profiling and transient enhanced boron diffusion experiments

Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc

Charge transport in metal/semiconductor/metal devices based on organic semiconductors with an exponential density of states

In amorphous org. semiconductors in which electron or hole transport is due to hopping in an exponential d. of states (DOS), the mobility is proportional to nb, where n is the carrier d. and where b increases with increasing width of the DOS. Exact anal. expressions are given for the steady-state and frequency-dependent c.d. in single-carrier metal/semiconductor/metal devices, based on such materials. For b .mchgt. 1, the cross over frequency between a conductive and capacitive ac response is shown to be much larger than the inverse steady-state carrier transit time. The relevance to the anal. of the ac small-signal response in small-mol. and polymer layers, such as are used in org. light-emitting devices, is discussed. [on SciFinder (R)

Characterization of dielectric charging in RF MEMS

Capacitive RF MEMS switches show great promise for use in wireless communication devices such as mobile phones, but the successful application of these switches is hindered by the reliability of the devices: charge injection in the dielectric layer (SiN) can cause irreversible stiction of the moving part of the switch. Our research comprises a study on charge injection by stressing the dielectric with electric fields on the order of 1 MV/cm, and by measuring the effects it has on the C-V curve