The Contact Resistance Performance of Gold Coated Carbon-Nanotube Surfaces under Low Current Switching

John W. McBRIDE; Chamaporn CHIANRABUTRA; Liudi JIANG; Suan Hui PU

doi:10.1587/transele.E96.C.1097

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The Contact Resistance Performance of Gold Coated Carbon-Nanotube Surfaces under Low Current Switching

John W. McBRIDE, Chamaporn CHIANRABUTRA, Liudi JIANG, Suan Hui PU

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Summary :

Multi-Walled CNT (MWCNT) are synthesized on a silicon wafer and sputter coated with a gold film. The planar surfaces are mounted on the tip of a piezo-electric actuator and mated with a gold coated hemispherical surface to form an electrical contact. These switching contacts are tested under conditions typical of MEMS relay applications; 4V, with a static contact force of 1mN, at a low current between 20-50mA. The failure of the switch is identified by the evolution of contact resistance which is monitored throughout the switching cycles. The results show that the contact resistance can be stable for up to 120 million switching cycles, which are 10⁶ orders of higher than state-of-the-art pure gold contact. Bouncing behavior was also observed in each switching cycle. The failing mechanism was also studied in relation to the contact surface changes. It was observed that the contact surfaces undergo a transfer process over the switching life time, ultimately leading to switching failure the number of bounces is also related to the fine transfer failure mechanism.

Publication: IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics Vol.E96-C No.9 pp.1097-1103

Publication Date: 2013/09/01

Publicized

Online ISSN: 1745-1353

DOI: 10.1587/transele.E96.C.1097

Type of Manuscript: Special Section INVITED PAPER (Special Section on Recent Development of Electro-Mechanical Devices — Papers selected from International Session on Electro-Mechanical Devices 2012 (IS-EMD2012) and other recent research results —)

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Authors

John W. McBRIDE
  University of Southampton Malaysia Campus
Chamaporn CHIANRABUTRA
  University of Southampton
Liudi JIANG
  University of Southampton
Suan Hui PU
  University of Southampton Malaysia Campus

Keyword

carbon nanotubes, contact surface, MEMS switching surface, fine transfer mechanism, contact resistance

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John W. McBRIDE, Chamaporn CHIANRABUTRA, Liudi JIANG, Suan Hui PU, "The Contact Resistance Performance of Gold Coated Carbon-Nanotube Surfaces under Low Current Switching" in IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics, vol. E96-C, no. 9, pp. 1097-1103, September 2013, doi: 10.1587/transele.E96.C.1097.
Abstract: Multi-Walled CNT (MWCNT) are synthesized on a silicon wafer and sputter coated with a gold film. The planar surfaces are mounted on the tip of a piezo-electric actuator and mated with a gold coated hemispherical surface to form an electrical contact. These switching contacts are tested under conditions typical of MEMS relay applications; 4V, with a static contact force of 1mN, at a low current between 20-50mA. The failure of the switch is identified by the evolution of contact resistance which is monitored throughout the switching cycles. The results show that the contact resistance can be stable for up to 120 million switching cycles, which are 10⁶ orders of higher than state-of-the-art pure gold contact. Bouncing behavior was also observed in each switching cycle. The failing mechanism was also studied in relation to the contact surface changes. It was observed that the contact surfaces undergo a transfer process over the switching life time, ultimately leading to switching failure the number of bounces is also related to the fine transfer failure mechanism.
URL: https://global.ieice.org/en_transactions/electronics/10.1587/transele.E96.C.1097/_p

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@ARTICLE{e96-c_9_1097,
author={John W. McBRIDE, Chamaporn CHIANRABUTRA, Liudi JIANG, Suan Hui PU, },
journal={IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics},
title={The Contact Resistance Performance of Gold Coated Carbon-Nanotube Surfaces under Low Current Switching},
year={2013},
volume={E96-C},
number={9},
pages={1097-1103},
abstract={Multi-Walled CNT (MWCNT) are synthesized on a silicon wafer and sputter coated with a gold film. The planar surfaces are mounted on the tip of a piezo-electric actuator and mated with a gold coated hemispherical surface to form an electrical contact. These switching contacts are tested under conditions typical of MEMS relay applications; 4V, with a static contact force of 1mN, at a low current between 20-50mA. The failure of the switch is identified by the evolution of contact resistance which is monitored throughout the switching cycles. The results show that the contact resistance can be stable for up to 120 million switching cycles, which are 10⁶ orders of higher than state-of-the-art pure gold contact. Bouncing behavior was also observed in each switching cycle. The failing mechanism was also studied in relation to the contact surface changes. It was observed that the contact surfaces undergo a transfer process over the switching life time, ultimately leading to switching failure the number of bounces is also related to the fine transfer failure mechanism.},
keywords={},
doi={10.1587/transele.E96.C.1097},
ISSN={1745-1353},
month={September},}

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TY - JOUR
TI - The Contact Resistance Performance of Gold Coated Carbon-Nanotube Surfaces under Low Current Switching
T2 - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics
SP - 1097
EP - 1103
AU - John W. McBRIDE
AU - Chamaporn CHIANRABUTRA
AU - Liudi JIANG
AU - Suan Hui PU
PY - 2013
DO - 10.1587/transele.E96.C.1097
JO - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics
SN - 1745-1353
VL - E96-C
IS - 9
JA - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics
Y1 - September 2013
AB - Multi-Walled CNT (MWCNT) are synthesized on a silicon wafer and sputter coated with a gold film. The planar surfaces are mounted on the tip of a piezo-electric actuator and mated with a gold coated hemispherical surface to form an electrical contact. These switching contacts are tested under conditions typical of MEMS relay applications; 4V, with a static contact force of 1mN, at a low current between 20-50mA. The failure of the switch is identified by the evolution of contact resistance which is monitored throughout the switching cycles. The results show that the contact resistance can be stable for up to 120 million switching cycles, which are 10⁶ orders of higher than state-of-the-art pure gold contact. Bouncing behavior was also observed in each switching cycle. The failing mechanism was also studied in relation to the contact surface changes. It was observed that the contact surfaces undergo a transfer process over the switching life time, ultimately leading to switching failure the number of bounces is also related to the fine transfer failure mechanism.
ER -