The Impact of Ambient Humidity on the Surface Conductance of SiNx Films for Application in Capacitive MEMS Switches

Abstract

The present paper provides an inexpensive method to assess the surface charge density variance directly in capacitive MEMS switches. It was found experimentally that the charge variance decay is directly associated with the presence of ambient humidity, which increases the dielectric film surface conductance. This result is qualitatively confirmed with the aid of interdigitated comb structures, where the same behavior was detected.