Abstract

The main challenge in the commercialization of the RF-MEMS switches is their reliability, related to both the electrical and mechanical domains. The development of test standards and understanding the underlying physics of different failure modes has always been of major concern for the RF-MEMS designers. This paper reviews the different failure modes in the RF-MEMS switches like stiction, residual stress, cyclic fatigue, creep, wear and packaging in detail. The origin of these failure modes, their characterization procedure and respective solutions presented in the literature are presented to get a better understanding of the state of the art work done in the field RF-MEMS reliability for nearly past two decades.

Keywords: Reliability, RF MEMS switch, stiction, adhesion, dielectric charging, residual stress, fatigue, creep, delamination, wear, packaging.