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Front Cover: High‐power MEMS switch enabled by carbon‐nanotube contact and shape‐memory‐alloy actuator (Phys. Status Solidi A 4/20123)
Author(s) -
Dahmardeh Masoud,
Mohamed Ali Mohamed Sultan,
Saleh Tanveer,
Hian Tee Min,
Moghaddam Mehran Vahdani,
Nojeh Alireza,
Takahata Kenichi
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.201390009
Subject(s) - microelectromechanical systems , actuator , materials science , carbon nanotube , power (physics) , transistor , electrical engineering , nanotechnology , mechanical engineering , optoelectronics , engineering , physics , quantum mechanics , voltage
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”.