Dark-to-Arc Transition in Air for Planar Electrodes with Microscale Gaps

摘要

. In the present work, planar electrodes separated by gaps less than 10 μm are fabricated on a silicon wafer. The wafer ha a 540 nm thick layer of LPCVD silicon nitride grown on top of it. The electrodes are made of copper and are ~100 μm wide and ~395 nm thick, Bond pads made a gold are used at the ends of the electrodes for electrical connections. When DC voltage is applied in air at atmospheric pressure, we see breakdown at 310 V for an electrode spacing of 2.15 μm. The breakdown is followed by a steep rise in the current leading to arc discharge which damages the electrodes. No visible glow discharge is observed. We vary the electrode spacing, gas pressure, and composition to study the effect of these parameters on the breakdown and dark-to-arc transition characteristics. We also apply AC voltage to observe the difference in the behavior between DC and AC inputs.