In Situ Active Thermoelectric Cooling for RF MEMS Switch Creep Mitigation

Under high-temperature and high-stress conditions, metal-based cantilever beams in RF MEMS (Microelectromechanical System) switches undergo severe creep.Such creep critically limits device lifetime and reliability. Here, we introduce a novel RF MEMS switch structure that integrates an in situ, chip-level TECD (Thermoelectric Cooling Device) enabling effective creep suppression via temperature reduction without altering the stress conditions of the cantilever beam. Based on the experimentally measured creep parameters of the cantilever beam material and COMSOL Multiphysics simulations, we demonstrate that the integration of the TECD can effectively reduce cantilever beam temperature by ~35 °C and extend switch lifetime by nearly 100-fold. Unlike conventional cooling methods, this new structure enables miniaturized chip-level integration, providing an efficient thermal management solution at the microscale. This strategy not only can suppress cantilever beam creep in RF MEMS switches but also offer a new solution for any microsystem requiring localized, chip‐level temperature management.