Dielectric breakdown of PDMS thin films

This note presents the data on the dielectric breakdown of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) thin films with thicknesses from 2 to 14 mu m between the silicon electrodes. The results demonstrate that there is a strong dependence of the breakdown field on both the electrode gap and shape. The breakdown fields range from 250 to 635 V mu m(-1), depending on the electrode geometry and gap, approaching 10x the breakdown fields for air gaps of the same size. The results are critical for understanding the performance limits of PDMS thin films used in the electromechanical microsystems.