Keywords: RF MEMS capacitive switch Dielectric charging Silicon nitride PECVD method a b s t r a c t The present paper aims to provide a better insight to the electrical characteristics of silicon nitride films that have been deposited with PECVD method under different conditions. The effect of film thickness, substrate temperature and the frequency that produces the plasma in PECVD method on t...

In this work, we model a radiofrequency discharge of hydrogenated silicon nitride in a capacitive coupled plasma reactor using Maxwellian and non-Maxwellian electron energy distribution function. The purpose is to investigate whether there is a real advantage and a significant contribution using non-Maxwellian electron energy distribution function rather than Maxwellian one for determining the ...

Major steps used in fabricating surface micromachined capacitive ultrasonic immersion transducers are investigated in this paper. Such steps include membrane formation and cavity sealing under vacuum. Three transducer membrane structures are evaluated: a nitride membrane with an LTO sacrificial layer; a polysilicon membrane with an LTO sacrificial layer; and a nitride membrane with a polysilico...

0026-2714/$ see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. A http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.microrel.2012.06.005 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +30 210 727 6722; fa E-mail address: [email protected] (M. Ko Kelvin probe method has been directly applied to capacitive MEMS switches in order to investigate temperature activated mechanisms in PECVD Silicon Nitride (SiNx) films. The bulk discharge current of...

In this paper, RF MEMS Capacitive Switches for two different dielectrics hafnium oxide (HfO2) and silicon nitride (Si3N4) are presented. The switches have been characterized and compared in terms of RF performance. The major impact of the change from Si3N4 to HfO2 having dielectric constant 20 is the reduction in overall dimension of the switch; capacitive area is reduced by 66% leading to over...

A new technique is introduced for both the excitation and the detection of vibrations of micromechanical skuctures. This makes use of a dielectric thin film, sandwiched between lower and upper electrodes, on top of the vibrating structure. The excitation is based on elecbrostatic forces between the charged electrodes, causing deformation of the dielectric film and bending of the multilayer stru...

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This paper describes the design and testing method of a micro robotic detector. The detector was implemented with capacitors. The chip employs the concept of an ultrasonic rangefinder. The fly can detect and locate objects in all directions easily. The micro robot needs to have this capability. In order to implement this, detectors was built to resemble a “soccer ball”. A robust fabrication pro...

This paper reviews ceramic substrates and thick-film metallization based packaging technologies in development for 500°C silicon carbide (SiC) electronics and sensors. Prototype high temperature ceramic chip-level packages and printed circuit boards (PCBs) based on ceramic substrates of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) and aluminum nitride (AlN) have been designed and fabricated. These ceramic substrate-...

Surface-micromachined capacitive ultrasonic transducers, which are suitable for operation in both air and water, have been fabricated and tested. Amorphous silicon is used as a sacrificial layer because of its good etching selectivity versus a nitride membrane, and improved cell-size control is obtained by lithographic definition of cavity walls. In addition, appropriate feature designs based o...