Abstract
Microrelays with liquid metal wetted contacts have been demonstrated using bidirectional electrothermal electromagnetic actuators. These relays were fabricated with the Metal MUMPs foundry process, which has a 20-mum-thick nickel structural layer. The operating voltage is under 0.5 V. The measured breakdown voltage and off-state resistance are greater than 200 V and 100 MOmega, respectively, and the gold-to-gold contact resistance is around 0.3 Omega. When the contacts are wetted with liquid gallium alloy (melting point at -20degC), the measured contact resistance can be as low as 0.015 Omega. As such, these bidirectional relays could have potential applications in high-power switching systems with low contact resistance using liquid metal wetted contacts.
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