Technical Papers and Presentations

Radio frequency (RF) micro-electro mechanical system (MEMS) switch works in on/off modes controlled by electrostatic forces. In off mode, rough surfaces of electrodes come into a contact. Membrane contact surfaces have complex surface roughness patterns and the mechanical contact problem is very challenging to understand. The capability to predict contact quality becomes extremely important to meet the challenges in RF MEMS applications. Elasto-plastic contact analysis between MEMS contact surfaces of three different sample size which cover regular and fractal surface topography are investigated in our study. The contact area of different models are observed related to regular and fractal patterns of the surface topography.