Acceleration of dielectric charging in RF MEMS capacitive switches

To design and validate accelerated life tests of RF MEMS capacitive switches, acceleration factors of charging effects in switch dielectric were quantitatively characterized. From measured charging and discharging transient currents at different temperatures and control voltages, densities and time constants of dielectric traps were extracted. A charging model was constructed to predict the amount of charge injected into the dielectric and the corresponding shift in actuation voltage under different acceleration factors such as temperatures, peak voltage, duty factor, and frequency of the control waveform. Agreement was obtained between the model prediction and experimental data. It was found that temperature, peak voltage, and duty factor were critical acceleration factors for dielectric-charging effects whereas frequency had little effect on charging.