Temperature accelerated discharging process in SiNx films with embedded CNTs for applications in MEMS switches

The present paper investigates the effect of temperature on the discharging process in dielectric films of MEMS capacitive switches. The investigation includes the assessment of MEMS switches with nanostructured SiNx with embedded CNTs and reference samples without the presence of CNTs. The devices were assessed by monitoring the shift of bias corresponding to minimum capacitance in the temperature range of 300K - 380K. The calculated discharge current through the dielectric film in both materials and at each temperature has been found to be thermally activated. The differences in the obtained activation energies were attributed to hopping conduction in bare SiNx films and the presence of CNTs that affect the conduction paths.