Microelectromechanical (MEM) switches are tiny devices\u2014imagine the diameter of a single strand of hair or smaller\u2014that are crucial parts of cell phones and radios.\u00a0A\u00a0study of the changes in conductivity of specific types of MEM switch\u00a0contacts is the subject of a paper co-authored by engineering professor Matthew Spencer and his students Ethan Falicov \u201921 and Jessica Marvin \u201923 (first and second author, respectively).<\/p>\n
The paper \u201cBreakdown and Healing of Tungsten-Oxide Films on Microelectromechanical Relay Contacts\u201d was published in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers\u2019 Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis work examined a type of MEM switch with tungsten contacts, which were used in this application to improve the endurance of MEM switch contacts,\u201d says Spencer. \u201cWe observed that the resistance of tungsten contacts increases quickly in atmosphere, and we studied how to restore low resistance with\u00a0electrical stress. This let us trace the source of these resistance changes, which occur because of the behavior of charge traps in tungsten oxides that form on the switch surfaces.\u201d<\/p>\n While the current practical application of MEM switches is for cell phones and radios, Spencer says\u00a0MEM switches with tungsten contacts could have high endurance, which could enable them to be used in new applications, like low-power computing.<\/p>\n \u201cThis work could be extended by studying the\u00a0resistance changes at different temperatures or under different atmospheric conditions, like humidity or gas composition,\u201d he says. \u201cStudying the resistance change under these conditions could inform types of packaging and environmental sealing that improve MEM switch properties.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Microelectromechanical (MEM) switches are tiny devices\u2014imagine the diameter of a single strand of hair or smaller\u2014that are crucial parts of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":145,"featured_media":8450,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,14,30],"class_list":["post-9599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engineering","category-faculty","category-students"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hmc.edu\/about\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}