Critical Experiments Leading to a Novel Test Fixture Assembly for Microcontact Reliability and Performance Research

In microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) ohmic contact switches, reliability is of great concern where billions of cycle operation is a requirement. Microcontact surface tribology plays the critical role in determining their reliability and performance. In this work, a novel, simple, quick and efficient test fixture has been designed and assembled to study the contact resistance, contact force, adhesion force, and contamination associated with the microcontact. In support of developing the test fixture, we evaluated the performance limitations of each components (i.e. piezoelectric actuators, force sensors, nanomax stage) independently. Force versus position, force versus voltage, and position versus voltage data have been collected for each test fixture components under direct current (DC) condition. A customized stage fixture has been 3D printed for holding the microcontact support structure. We use Thorlab's state-of-the-art nanomax stage to provide nanometric positioning and precise alignment between the microcontact area and the force sensor on three orthogonal axes. We fabricate a novel contact support structure to test the feasibility of our test fixture and collect force and resistance data simultaneously at the rate of -5 KHz using Lab View. Data obtained from the test fixture will provide significant information to design a robust and reliable MEMS switch for future DC and RF applications.