Long-term reliability of RF-MEMS dielectric-less capacitive switches

Long-term switch reliability is one of the issues that so far prevented the widespread use of RF-MEMS switches. In this paper a detailed analysis of long-term actuation properties of a MEMS capacitive switch is presented, together with a framework for the data interpretation and for failure time prediction.Due to the lack of a solid theoretical background, the modeling function is however not univocal, and this leads to a wide interval of possible lifetimes. However, also in the worst case examined, the predicted device lifetime is at least of the order of several years.