Revista de Ingeniería

revinge | eISSN 2011-0049 | ISSN 0121-4993

Electrostatic Breakdown Measurements in Micro Gaps

No. 29 (2009-05-01)
  • Juan Sebastián Rodríguez
    Ingeniero Eléctrico y Electrónico, Estudiante de Maestría en Ingeniería Electrónica y Computadores, Universidad de los Andes. Bogotá D.C., Colombia. se-rodri@uniandes.edu.co
  • Sebastián Bonilla
    Ingeniero Eléctrico y Electrónico, Estudiante de Maestría en Ingeniería Electrónica y Computadores, Universidad de los Andes. Bogotá D.C., Colombia. ru-bonil@uniandes.edu.co
  • Alba Ávila
    Ph.D. en Física. Profesor Asistente, Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica y Electrónica, Universidad de los Andes. Bogotá D.C., Colombia a-avila@uniandes.edu.co
https://doi.org/10.16924/revinge.29.1

Abstract

The continuous miniaturization of electronic and electromechanical devices has allowed the study of non-visible effects on macroscales, as it is the case of the behavior of microgap separated electrodes. The behavior of aluminum electrodes at atmospheric pressure appears here for a rank of separations of 1 μm to 22 μm. The Paschen curve is conventionally used to describe the behavior of electrodes. The results demonstrate that at separations smaller than 4 μm the breakdown voltage in the electrodes decays dramatically and it does not present a minimum as predicts the Paschen curve. This modification establishes critical conditions of operation in devices based on electrodes with microgap separations [1, 2].

Keywords: Breakdown voltage, MEMS, Paschen curve