Reliability and failure analysis of MEMS/NEMS switches

Microelectromechnical system (MEMS) and nanoelectromechanical system (NEMS) devices have widely deployed in many places now. When they are used in harsh environment, reliability remains as a grand challenge because these devices are exposed to catastrophic level of pressure, temperature, radiation and so on, while there are free-standing structures and movable parts in MEMS and NEMS. In this invited talk, general reliability related concerns of MEMS and NEMS are discussed first. MEMS/NEMS switches are experimentally investigated in terms of reliability and failure analysis.