Reducing adhesion energy of micro-relay electrodes by ion beam synthesized oxide nanolayers

摘要: Reduction in the adhesion energy of contacting metal electrode surfaces nano-electro-mechanical switches is crucial for operation with low hysteresis voltage. We demonstrate that by forming thin layers metal-oxides on metals such as Ru and W, can be reduced up to a factor ten. employ low-energy ion-beam synthesis technique subsequent thermal annealing form very (∼2 nm) (such RuO2 WOx) W quantify using an atomic force microscope microspherical tips.