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Electrical Switching Using Compliant Metal Infiltrated Multi-Wall Nanotube Arrays

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Justin Bult ,
W. Gregory Sawyer ,
Andrey Voevodin ,
Chris Muratore ,
Pam Dickrell ,
Sunil Pal ,
Pulickel Ajayan  and
Linda Schadler
Justin Bult
Affiliation:
bultj@rpi.edu, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Materials Science and Engineering, 140 Materials Research Center, 110 8th St, Troy, NY, 12180, United States
W. Gregory Sawyer
Affiliation:
wgsawyer@ufl.edu, University of Florida, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Gainesville, FL, 32611, United States
Andrey Voevodin
Affiliation:
Andrey.Voevodin@wpafb.af.mil, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, 45433, United States
Chris Muratore
Affiliation:
chris.muratore@wpafb.af.mil, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, 45433, United States
Pam Dickrell
Affiliation:
pld@ufl.edu, University of Florida, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Gainesville, FL, 32611, United States
Sunil Pal
Affiliation:
sunilkpal@gmail.com, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Materials Science and Engineering, Troy, NY, 12180, United States
Pulickel Ajayan
Affiliation:
ajayan@rpi.edu, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Materials Science and Engineering, Troy, NY, 12180, United States
Linda Schadler
Affiliation:
schadl@rpi.edu, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Materials Science and Engineering, Troy, NY, 12180, United States
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Abstract

The topology of conventional noble-metal-coated switch counterfaces creates modes of switch failure via fouling, arcing, and local melting when impacted. To avoid these failure phenomena, compliant conductive contact surfaces of vertically aligned multi-wall nanotube arrays grown on conductive substrates have been fabricated. Infiltration of the array by noble metal results in a robust compliant switch contact surface. Cyclic hot-switch testing of the nanotube based switch, via modified nano-indentation, results in performance surpassing conventional designs with stable resistance of 0.4Ω over 3000 cycles. Investigating the physical performance of the array shows the array is compacted less than 3% over the first 500 cycles with no observable compaction through the remaining cycles. The improvement in performance of the nanotube based switch is attributed to the ability for the compliant contact surface to conform to the probe tip geometry, increasing the effective contact surface area.

Keywords

nano-indentationmicroelectro-mechanical (MEMS)tribology
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1085: Symposium T – Nanoscale Tribology–Impact for Materials and Devices , 2008 , 1085-T02-05
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2008

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References

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