Reliability
Contact interface degradation poses a reliability issue for ohmic cantilever RF MEMS switches, whereas dielectric charging beam stiction, as shown in Fig. 5(a), and humidity induced beam stiction, as shown in Fig. 5(b), pose a reliability issue for capacitive fixed-fixed beam RF MEMS switches. Stiction is the inability of the beam to release after removal of the drive voltage. A high contact pressure assures a low-ohmic contact or alleviates dielectric charging induced beam stiction. Commercially-available ohmic cantilever RF MEMS switches and capacitive fixed-fixed beam RF MEMS switches have demonstrated lifetimes in excess of 100 billion cycles at 100 mW of RF input power. Reliability issues pertaining to high-power operation are discussed in the limiter section.
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