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Impact of Contact Materials and Operating Conditions on Stability of Micromechanical Switches

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Abstract

Nano and micromechanical switches are of great interest in applications that require high speed, low-power consumption and high electrical isolation. There is strong evidence that airborne hydrocarbon accumulation on the contact surfaces of the switch is a key cause for device failure. Relatively unexplored contact materials such as RuO2 are of interest because they are believed to be less prone to hydrocarbon deposit accumulation than more commonly used materials such as Pt and Au. Here, we measure the reliability of RuO2 and Pt-coated microswitches in hydrocarbon-rich environments with N2 and N2:O2 background gases. The RuO2 material performs very poorly in contaminated N2, but very well in contaminated N2:O2. Furthermore, RuO2 performs much better than Pt in the contaminated N2:O2. It is demonstrated that the deposit, initially being an insulator, can be electrically broken-down, thereby substantially lowering switch resistance. It is further shown that the passage of electrical current through the contacts augments deposit accumulation.

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Acknowledgments

Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000. We acknowledge General Electric Corporation for providing funds to construct the test chamber.

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  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA, 15213, USA

    Vitali Brand & Maarten P. de Boer

  2. Sandia National Labs, 1515 Eubank Avenue SE, Albuquerque, NM, 87185, USA

    Michael S. Baker

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Brand, V., Baker, M.S. & de Boer, M.P. Impact of Contact Materials and Operating Conditions on Stability of Micromechanical Switches. Tribol Lett 51, 341–356 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-013-0166-2

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