Design and modelling of polysilicon microswitches

Micromechanical relays and switches have been extensively reported in the literature. To date little thought has been given to using the elements for electronic functionality as threshold voltages of the order of 20-80 V and the high desired current flows when the switch closed is have been seen as prohibitive. The primary aim of our work is to fabricate micromechanical logic elements to provide robust data processing with the potential for operation in severe environments. This paper reports on the design and modelling of simple cantilever beam micromechanical switches for this application.