Failure predictive model of capacitive RF-MEMS

This paper reports on the investigation of the failure mechanism in capacitive RF-MEMS through an efficient analysis methodology. We demonstrate that the physical origin of the dielectric charging is the leakage current through the RF-MEMS dielectric. To monitor the kinetic of this failure phenomenon, we introduce a useful parameter, which corresponds to the shift rate of the actuation voltages (SRAV) and an appropriate reliability-driven electrical stress parameter, which takes the contact quality between the bridge and the dielectric into account. We finally propose a figure of merit, derived from a predictive model, which quantifies the capacitive RF MEMS reliability and open the door to the prediction of lifetime as well as its optimization and/or acceleration for testing.