Electromechanical design space exploration for electrostatically actuated ohmic switches using extended parallel plate compact model

Abstract

The nanoscaled electrostatically actuated electromechanical ohmic switch is an emerging device with advanced performance in terms of ^ION/ ^IOFF ratio. It is imperative that compact models accompany such novel devices in order to fully evaluate their potential at the circuit-level. A minimal, yet, adequate compact model is developed and analyzed in this work. Further, the model is used as a compass for switch design space exploration and, simultaneously, a corresponding parameter extraction methodology is compiled. The application on data from numerical simulations and on measurements of fabricated devices, verifies the potential of the model, while circuit-level simulations validate its robustness within an industrial IC design environment. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.