Dielectric Charging in Low Temperature Silicon Nitride for RF-MEMS Capacitive Switches

ABSTRACTThe paper presents a systematic investigation of dielectric charging in low temperature silicon nitride for RF-MEMS capacitive switches. The investigation takes includes both the effect of dielectric film thickness as well as the effect of metal contacts. The investigation demonstrates that the charging process is asymmetric. It is shown that the amount of stored charge depends significantly on the dielectric film thickness, which is caused from the contribution of the space charge polarization mechanism. Finally, the results are compared with those of higher temperature silicon nitride.