A contact for a micromechanical switch has been fabricated using electroplated gallium (Ga) on silicon to create an electrical switch contact that can be annealed to recover its original properties after mechanical damage. The resistivity of the electroplated Ga appears to be similar to pure Ga. The resistance increased with cycling but recovered to the original value after a thermal reflow process at 120 °C for 10 min. The hardness of thermally reflowed Ga droplets was 2 MPa when the droplets were unconstrained and was up to 95 MPa for constrained droplets, suggesting that all switching in this study caused permanent deformation at room temperature and that defects formed during plastic deformation are likely candidates for the increased resistance during cycling. Up to 300 switching cycles were investigated for contacts involving up to four Ga droplets to measure contact behavior under high-current and load-switching applications. Oxidation behavior was characterized for the thermal reflow process on the Ga droplets, suggesting a passivating 30-nm oxide form at 100 °C, and electrical contact resistance nanoindentation suggests the oxide breaks during mechanical contact.

This paper gives an overview of the low-complexity radio frequency microelectromechanical systems (RF MEMS) switch concept and technology of EADS Innovation Works in Germany. Starting in 2003, a capacitive switch concept, which is unique in several aspects, was developed to address specific needs in the aeronautic and space. Thermally grown silicon oxide as dielectric layer, the silicon substrate as actuation electrode, and a conductive zone realized by ion implantation make the EADS RF MEMS switch a very simple, low-cost, and reliable approach. In this document, data on experimental investigations are presented, which demonstrate outstanding performance figures in terms of insertion loss, isolation, frequency range, bandwidth, RF-power handling, and robustness with respect to thermal load. Based on this concept, numerous different circuits in particular single-pole single-throws (SPSTs), single-pole multi-throws (SPMTs), tunable filters, phase shifters, and electronically steerable antennas between 6 and 100 GHz have been designed, fabricated, and characterized.

In this paper, the development of a portable polymerase chain reaction (PCR) device is presented. Integrating electromagnetic mini-actuators for bi-directional fluid transport, the proposed device, whose dimension is 67mm × 66mm × 25mm, can be fully operated with a 5V DC voltage. The device consists of four major parts: A disposable channel chip in which PCR mixture is manipulated and reacted, a heater chip which generates different temperature zones for PCR reaction, a linear actuator array for pumping PCR mixture, and a circuit module for controlling and driving the system. The advantages of the device include the rapid temperature responses associated with continuous-flow-type PCR devices, as well as the programmable thermal cycling associated with chamber-type PCR devices. The thermal characteristics are measured and discussed. PCR amplification is successfully performed for the 122 bp segment of MCF-7/adr cell line. Due to its small footprint, this self-contained system potentially can be employed for point-of-care (POC) applications.