Interfacial failure under thermal fatigue loading in multilayered MEMS structures

Abstract

The reliability of MEMS, and in particular of RF MEMS switches, might be increased by the use of a Physics of Failure (PoF) methodology. A numerical study, based on the finite element method (FEM) and on the representative volume element (RVE) approach was performed to examine the effects of temperature dependent materials properties, temperature variations on failure (e.g. yielding of metals) and to predict interfacial damage in multilayered MEMS structures. The effect of residual stresses, due to electroplating processes of the metal layers was considered in these studies to investigate their effects on MEMS reliability. Numerical results have shown that interfacial damage is mainly concentrated at the plating-base/substrate interface and it is strongly influenced by the temperature dependent material properties and by the presence of residual stresses.