Investigation of charge relaxation of dielectrics for capacitive micro-actuators

The experimental characterization for metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) capacitor by using the capacitance versus voltage (C-V) measurement is used to investigate the characteristics of dielectrics discharging in capacitive micro-actuator. The Al/SiNx/n-Si capacitors were prepared for experimental measurement. The charge relaxation characteristics were obtained by the C-V measurements after different electrical stresses in the MIS capacitors. The experimental results show different discharging mechanisms for electron and hole in silicon-rich nitride films. The method is direct and simple to be used in assessing the dielectrics quality for reliable capacitive micro-actuators.