Assessment of dielectric charging in RF MEMS capacitive switches with the aid of MIM capacitors

Dielectric charging is an important reliability issue for RF MEMS capacitive switches still preventing their commercialization. Therefore a lot of effort has been spent on the understanding of charging and discharging processes. MIM capacitors are considered as equally important device for the assessment of dielectric charging for RF MEMS. Beside the obvious similarities between MEMS switches in the down state and MIM capacitors there are also some important differences. The present papers aims to reveal the similarities and the differences between the two types of devices by analyzing experimental data obtained on MIM capacitors and MEMS capacitive switches fabricated with the same material.