Low-force contact heating and softening using micromechanical switches in diffusive-ballistic electron-transport transition

We demonstrate softening of the gold-to-gold contact in surface micromachined microelectromechanical switches under electrostatic force near 30 muN, which results from the heating of contact asperities sustaining electron transport. A bias potential that causes the switch contacts to soften is measured for initial contact resistance varying between 0.5 and 300 Omega. The asperity sizes in this range are comparable to the electron mean-free path at room temperature. We show that contact spots smaller than the mean-free path require larger bias for softening. Our results can be explained using a model accounting for ballistic electron transport in the contact. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.