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- Title
Front Cover: High-power MEMS switch enabled by carbon-nanotube contact and shape-memory-alloy actuator (Phys. Status Solidi A 4/20123).
- Authors
Dahmardeh, Masoud; Mohamed Ali, Mohamed Sultan; Saleh, Tanveer; Hian, Tee Min; Moghaddam, Mehran Vahdani; Nojeh, Alireza; Takahata, Kenichi
- Abstract
Micro‐electro‐mechanical switches offer many benefits over solid‐state switches. Due to the physical limitations of power transistors, high‐power switches based on micro‐electro‐mechanical‐systems (MEMS) technology have been attracting more attention. However, reliability and lifetime of the contact are among the challenges of MEMS contact switches, especially for high‐power applications. Dahmardeh et al. (pp. 631–638) use vertically aligned carbon nanotubes, so called CNT forests, as the contact material for MEMS switches to reveal very promising performance characteristics. A micromachined shape‐memory‐alloy (SMA) actuator is integrated with a CNT‐forest contact, showing device operation with input powers over 5 W. Long‐term operation for over 1 × 106 switching cycles is demonstrated. Combining CNTs and SMAs potentially enables a robust switching device desirable for high‐power, DC/low‐frequency applications. The cover image symbolically illustrates the approach taken by the researchers towards realizing reliable MEMS switches through a carbon nanotube “path”.
- Publication
Physica Status Solidi. A: Applications & Materials Science, 2013, Vol 210, Issue 4, pn/a
- ISSN
1862-6300
- Publication type
Editorial
- DOI
10.1002/pssa.201390009