Automated and Optimal Actuation Voltage Waveform Design for Contact Bouncing Mitigation of MEMS Switches

Abstract

This paper presents an efficient methodology for automated optimal tailoring actuation voltage waveform of MEMS switches aiming at eliminating the detrimental contact bouncing effect to speed up the switching process and improve the mechanical reliability. This is a simulation-based approach where genetic algorithm (GA) is used in combination with a dedicated mechanical model of MEMS switch to derive optimal actuation waveform. The proposed technique has been implemented in SystemC-A, which is extremely well suited for complex modeling, implementation of post-processing of simulation results and optimization algorithms. Effectiveness of proposed approach is corroborated by a practical case study of automated actuation waveform design for a prefabricated DC-contact MEMS switch. The experimental results show that the switching time of the switch by employing optimized actuation voltage waveform is dramatically reduced to 60μs from 95μs, while the bouncing effect is successfully eliminated.