A MIM capacitor study of dielectric charging for RF MEMS capacitive switches

MIM capacitors are considered equally important devices for the assessment of dielectric charging in RF MEMS capacitive switches. Beside the obvious similarities between the down state condition of RF MEMS and MIM capacitors there are also some important differences. The paper aims to introduce a novel approach to the study of dielectric charging in MEMS with the aid of MIM capacitors by combining experimental results obtained by the application of DC, Charging Transient and Kelvin Probe techniques. The strengths and weaknesses are discussed in conjunction with experimental results obtained on SiNx based MIM capacitors and MEMS capacitive switches fabricated under the same conditions.