Mercury-contact switching with gap-closing microcantilever

摘要

We present an electrostatically actuated micro-mechanical relay with a stationary mercury micro-drop at the point of contact. The moving element is 2 μm thick polysilicon cantilever with widths from 2 to 3 μm and lengths from 300 to 500 μm made through MCNC Multi-User MEMS Processes (MUMPs). A technique to selectively form micro scale mercury on prescribed sites was used to accomplish mercury-to-electrode contacts for the relays. Measurements of the poly-mercury-poly contact resistance resulted in values that range from 800 to 1000 Ω, with most values near 1000 Ω. The total resistance of the devices varied from 1.9 kΩ to 3.2 kΩ depending on the device configuration. The device can switch loads over 10 mA.