Ieeepro techno solutions 2012 ieee embedded project - microelectromechanical-systems-based switches for power applications

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 48, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 2012 1163
Microelectromechanical-Systems-Based
Switches for Power Applications
Chris Keimel, Glenn Claydon, Bo Li, John N. Park, and Marcelo E. Valdes
Abstract—A new system for switching electrical power using
microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) is presented. The heart
of the system utilizes custom-designed MEMS switching device
arrays that are able to conduct current more efficiently and can
open orders of magnitude faster than traditional macroscopic me-
chanical relays. Up to now, MEMS switches have been recognized
for their ability to switch very quickly due to their low mass but
have only been used to carry and switch very low currents at ex-
tremely low voltage. However, recent developments have enabled
suppression of the arc that normally occurs when the MEMS
switch is opened while current is flowing. The combination of the
arc suppression with the MEMS switch arrays designed for this
purpose enables a breakthrough increase in current and voltage
handling capability. The resultant technology has been scaled to
handle many amperes of current and switch hundreds of volts.
Such current and voltage handling capability deliver improved
energy efficiency and the capacity to handle fault current levels
that are encountered in typical ac or dc power systems. Fault cur-
rent interruption takes place in less than 10 μs, almost regardless
of the prospective fault current magnitude. The properties of the
MEMS switch arrays allow the switching mechanism to operate
at temperatures in excess of 200 ◦
C. The switches also have a
vibration tolerance in excess of 1000 G. The combination of fast
MEMS switching speed, optimized current and voltage handling
capacity of the switch arrays, the arc suppression circuitry, and
optimized sensing and control enables a single sensing, control,
and switching system to operate in a small fraction of a mil-
lisecond. This paper will present the basic physics of the MEMS
switches together with recent advances that enable the technology.
Some illustrative examples of the ways that the devices may be
used to provide protection and control within electrical systems
will also be presented.
Index Terms—Micro switching, microelectromechanical
systems (MEMS), microsecond switching.
I. INTRODUCTION
TODAY’S fault protection systems use breakers or switches
that open circuits after a fault is detected; however, the
rapidly rising current is only interrupted after significant en-
ergy has already traveled through the fault interrupter. Such
Manuscript received January 25, 2011; accepted September 29, 2011.
Date of publication May 16, 2012; date of current version July 13, 2012.
Paper 2010-PSEC-559, presented at the 2011 IEEE/IAS Industrial and
Commercial Power Systems Technical Conference, Newport Beach, CA,
May 1–5, and approved for publication in the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON
INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS by the Power Systems Engineering Committee of
the IEEE Industry Applications Society.
C. Keimel, G. Claydon, B. Li, and J. N. Park are with the General Elec-
tric Global Research Center, Niskayuna, NY 12309 USA (e-mail: keimel@
research.ge.com; claydon@ge.com; Bo.Li@ge.com; jpark2@nycap.rr.com).
M. E. Valdes is with General Electric Industrial Solutions, Plainville,
CT 06062 USA (e-mail: Marcelo.valdes@ge.com).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TIA.2012.2199949
power surges often damage generators, distribution systems,
conductors, and loads and create hazard to personnel. Very
fast fault current detection and interruption is needed to mit-
igate the damage caused by excessive fault currents. The
microelectromechanical-systems (MEMS)-based microsecond
arcless interruption can deliver the interruption speed required
to mitigate damage to conductors and loads, as well as to the
switching device. Electrical discharge or arcing across opening
mechanical contacts, a phenomenon studied since the advent
of electricity [1]–[5], is eliminated through the use of an elec-
tronic protection system combined with an ultrafast microscale
electrical relay based on MEMS switch [6]–[9] technology.
When fault situations occur in electrical power distribution
systems, conventional power circuit protection devices, even
current-limiting ones, can react too slowly to adequately limit
destructive energy dissipation that damages electronic equip-
ment downstream from the fault interrupter. Additionally, even
normal-interruption-related discharge plasmas and arc energy
can eventually damage the contacts used in breakers and con-
tactors, thereby rendering the devices inoperable.
The authors have developed and demonstrated a micrometer-
scaled ultrafast mechanical switch array and integrated the
array with fast electrical bypass circuitry to create a system
that switches electrical energy, without a significant arc, in a
few microseconds. Arc energy between the switching contacts
is reduced by a factor of up to 1 million, and this small amount
of energy does not damage the MEMS microscale contact gap
or the nanosized contact surface topography of the contacts.
This ultrafast and arc-free switching system (current sensing,
decision logic, control logic, switch opening, and commutation)
capability responds to a fault much faster than even a fuse and is
completely resettable due to the lack of arc damage. The system
described here has been used to turn on and off a 3/4-hp motor
and, more importantly, to provide arcless protection in a system
with 16 000-A prospective fault current. Eliminating electrical
discharges during switching events represents a new way to im-
prove the robustness of electrical systems and has the potential
to fundamentally change the way we think about distributing
power and protecting ac and dc electrical distribution networks.
There is also a growing demand for grid energy management
and for mobile energy storage and usage that is challenging
the way we traditionally think about how we use energy and
how we protect that use. Transitioning from the macroscale to
the microscale enables a major technical breakthrough in the
expanding field of electrical switching.
Mechanical switches have been used for more than a century
to physically open electrical circuits and halt the flow of cur-
rent. We know that the parting of contacts carrying inductive
0093-9994/$31.00 © 2012 IEEE

1164 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS, VOL. 48, NO. 4, JULY/AUGUST 2012
Fig. 1. (a) Side-view SEM image of the first 50-μm-long micro switch in a
large array of switches. The location of the hinge, gate, and electrical contacts
is indicated. A barely visible 1-μm air gap separates the conductive beam from
the gate and contact when the switch is open. (b) Schematic of the micro switch
in its open state, when the gate voltage is low. (c) Schematic of the micro switch
in its closed state, when the gate voltage is high.
current causes an arc, and we have come to accept the arcing
phenomenon as unavoidable when switching power. Electrical
switching has been studied in great depth; numerous books and
papers have been written, and improvements have been made
to minimize the switching arc energy and to contain this energy
during a fault [10]–[13]. Also, advances in power electronic
switching circuitry and semiconductor devices have enabled
arcless switching, although the consequence is greater power
dissipation and leakage [14], [15]. However, only recently have
we been able to eliminate the arc for both ac and dc mechanical
switching. Existing protection devices need to be faster; for
some applications, they need to be miniaturized, and they need
to minimize harmful power dissipation while maintaining and
improving upon today’s safety expectations. Arc-free microme-
chanical protection systems enable these capabilities for future
generations of protection systems.
II. ARC-FREE MECHANICAL SWITCHING
A. Arrangement
Arc-free mechanical switching has been achieved through
a combination of fast switching speed and the ability to open
the contacts at a forced and momentary artificially induced
zero voltage. The fast switching speed is achieved through
an electrostatically actuated micromechanical switch, shown in
Fig. 1, that is micrometers in size and that is switched between
Fig. 2. Electrical schematic detailing the basic elements of a protected arc-
free switching circuit including the MEMS switch, the diode bridge, and the
pulsing circuitry that closes into load side voltage and opens load current.
the open and closed states in microseconds. Fast switching
speed is critical in order to open the contacts at precisely
the moment when an externally created shunt is momentarily
created to provide a near-zero voltage across the mechanical
contacts [16]. The momentary shunt is established around the
mechanical switches for a few microseconds by using a pulsed
balanced diode bridge. The diode bridge shown in Fig. 2
functions to divert the load current momentarily away from
the switches, and when properly balanced, the bridge creates
a near-zero voltage potential across the switch contacts. When
the switches are in the closed state, they can be scaled to
carry the current levels associated with steady state, inrush, and
momentary transient currents. To open the switches safely, the
diode bridge shunt is activated to force a temporary near-zero
voltage condition, while the switch’s mechanical contacts sepa-
rate rapidly, commutating current to the diode bridge due to the
increasing (nonlinear) switch resistance. A minimal transient
voltage spike, on the order of a few tens of millivolts, is induced
from the die packaging and system local stray inductance. The
switches open with only a minimal induced transient voltage
spike caused by localized stray inductance on the order of
tens to hundreds of millivolts. The transient voltage spike is
not sufficient to cause an arc across the contacts. After a few
microseconds, the switches have fully opened, and the pulsed
diode bridge turns off, leaving the micro switches to hold the
full system applied voltage. To close the switch safely with
voltage present across the contacts, an analogous sequence—
pulsing the diode bridge to collapse the voltage across the con-
tacts while they rapidly close—is used. The contacts exhibit no
visible surface damage after thousands of switching operations
when protected in this manner.
B. Switch Fabrication
The micro switches are fabricated similar to semiconductor
devices in a class 100 cleanroom using various based process-
ing techniques common in the fabrication of semiconductor
devices, including photolithography, physical vapor deposi-
tion, sputtering, plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition,

KEIMEL et al.: MICROELECTROMECHANICAL-SYSTEMS-BASED SWITCHES FOR POWER APPLICATIONS 1165
Fig. 3. Top down image of a power switching micro switch array on a dime
for size reference. The chip contains 200 microscale mechanical switching units
in parallel capable and tested to withstand 350 V and 10-A steady-state current
per die.
reactive ion etching, wet chemical etching, and electroplating
to form and pattern the multiple material layers that make up
the actuated mechanical structures. The basic switch element is
a freestanding ∼50-μm-wide mechanical cantilever beam that
is anchored on one end and that extends ∼50 μm toward and
1 μm above its separated contact on its opposite end. An
array of individual switching beams is fabricated from a high-
strength nickel alloy. The alloy and its processing conditions
have been optimized to resist time-dependent deformation. The
beam deflects approximately 1 μm after it has been electrostat-
ically actuated to make ohmic contact between an upper and
a lower contact. When the switches are closed, they have a
resistance of about 1 Ω per switch element. Hundreds of tiny
cantilever beams have been arrayed in parallel on a single 3 mm
by 3 mm size die. The use of parallel array architecture on the
MEMS die shown in Fig. 3 lowers the ohmic contact resistance
to less than 100 mΩ and enables a single MEMS die to carry in
excess of 5 A of continuous current.
C. Switch Physics
The entire array of microscale cantilevered switches is
opened and closed simultaneously in about 1 μs by applying
an electrostatic force to the cantilever beam through a separate
common gate electrode. The gate-to-beam spacing is also 1 μm
when the switch is open. In Fig. 4, the switch array is pulled
closed in ∼1 μs when ∼80 V is applied to the signal line
and the switch opens in < 3 μs when the voltage is removed
from the line and the beams’ restoring force returns them
to their original open position. When the switches are open,
300 V can be sustained across the 1-μm gap. This sustained
voltage is possible due to the gap being smaller than the mean
free path of the gas molecules, thus minimizing the effect of
avalanche breakdown by minimizing the ionization potential.
At gaps smaller than the Paschen minimum of 327 V in air, field
emission becomes significant. The contacts and their roughness
have been designed and fabricated to minimize field emission
effects at small gaps and have enabled sustained voltages
> 300 V across a 1-μm gap, a value that exceeds the limits
of the modified Paschen curve. A leakage current of a few pico-
amperes is measurable when the switches on a single die are
open, and this current is believed to be due to surface leakage.
Fig. 4. (a) Oscilloscope trace illustrates a 3-μs closing time for a 200 micro
switch array. The initial transient is a measurement artifact due to the high
dI/dt from the gate signal. (b) Oscilloscope trace measurement indicating
that the opening time of a 200 micro switch array is less than 1 μs. Both
measurements are taken at low current levels for trace clarity. The open and
close times remain consistent at higher currents.
A distinct advantage of electrostatic operation is the ex-
tremely low power required to toggle between the open and
closed states. The actuating electrode behaves as a very small
zero-loss capacitor from the perspective of the drive electronics,
and the on-state requires no current and therefore no power
to maintain. Power, on the order of a few microwatts, is re-
quired from the drive electronics only during the charge and
discharge transitions of the small gate capacitance during the
few microsecond switching transients. The high-strength nickel
alloy that makes up the microcantilever element enables me-
chanical switch operation at temperatures greater than 200 ◦
C
and stability against time-dependent deformation mechanisms.
Also, the small size of each individual switch element and its
ultralow mass make the switching device capable of sustaining
> 1000-G shock without changing state.
III. ELECTRONIC PROTECTION AND
MICRO SWITCH INTEGRATION
Without switching protection (the pulsed diode bridge), the
high speed of the micro switches alone cannot break current
nor switch into significant voltage without damaging electrical
discharge occurring to the contacts [17], [18]. The switches
are positioned at the midpoint of a balanced diode bridge, and
when the diode bridge is conducting, the midpoint voltage is
near zero. Four conditions must be present to open the micro
switches without electrical discharge.

First, the diode bridge that shunts the micro switches must
create a momentary near-zero voltage drop across the micro
switches for them to open safely. The near-zero-voltage con-
dition is assured through a resonant pulse network. A charged
capacitor is discharged into an inductive element in series with
the diode bridge. This discharge event creates a half-sinusoidal
current pulse that is 20 μs in duration. The current pulse
divides equally between both legs of the diode bridge causing
the diodes to conduct and the midpoints of the bridge to be
at equal potentials. These microsecond events are captured in
the oscilloscope traces shown in Fig. 5. The micro switches
across the bridge midpoint experience a near-zero voltage drop
(< 500 mV). The equivalent circuit presented to the contacts
connected across the bridge comprises a very low resistance
due to the very low value diode body resistance of the bridge
diodes in addition to a very small voltage component due
to the imbalance current in the bridge and the switch circuit
configuration parasitic inductances.
Second, the diode bridge (which shunts the micro switches
when pulsed) must present a temporary electrical resistance
path that is smaller than the closed contact resistance of the
MEMS switch array. This condition enables the load current to
be diverted from the switch array into the diode bridge as the
micro switches start to open. Load current transfer is achieved
as a consequence of the resonant pulse and the transient inter-
action between the bridge and the micro switches to effectively
transfer current within a few microseconds. The transient cur-
rent pulse must be greater than the current through the micro
switches and, ideally, be more than 1.5 times the switch current
in order to minimally perturb the voltage balance across the
diode bridge as the switch current is absorbed into the bridge
circuit. Also, when the diode bridge is conducting, it must
present a low resistive path such that the current commutates
from the micro switches to the shunt. This current commutation
is achieved in a few microseconds. It is anticipated that the
switch array resistance increases dramatically as the switch
metal-to-metal ohmic contacts begin to physically separate.
The decrease in contact pressure causes the nanoscale contact
areas to decrease in size, restricting the overall conductive area
and increasing the contact resistance [19]–[21]. This change in
resistance occurs over ∼1 μs until the contacts are physically
separated by an air gap, transferring the load current to the
diode bridge shunt and halting the current flow through the
micro switches.
Third, the inductance between the micro switch contacts
and the diode bridge must be minimized to be on the order
of nanohenrys to permit transfer of the current within mi-
croseconds. This inductance limits the speed at which current
can be transferred and produces an undesirable energy storage
element that can, if the parasitic inductance were too large,
produce unwanted transient voltage on the order of volts across
the mechanical contacts when parting. The transient voltage
spikes, if great enough, can produce contact-damaging elec-
trical discharges or arc currents. When properly minimized,
the transient voltage induced is not sufficient to generate an
electrical discharge between the parting contacts.
Finally, the inherently fast opening rate of the micro switches
ensures that the fully open state will be achieved before the
Fig. 5. (a) Oscilloscope trace of arc-free turn-on event of a resistive light bulb
load at 150 V with 5-A inrush current using a single micro switch chip and
protection circuit. (b) Oscilloscope trace of arc-free turn-off event at 1.5-A
steady-state current, back charging the protection circuit as the voltage rises
to 150 V. (c) Oscilloscope trace capturing the repetitive 2-Hz cycling through
microsecond-scale turn on into 150 V and a 5-A inrush and turn off into 1.5-A
steady-state current and voltage rising to 150 V.
applied voltage across the opening switches increases in order
to prevent voltage breakdown or arcing. The rate of voltage in-
crease is determined by the load circuit impedance (inductance
and capacitance) together with the magnitude of both the source
and load voltages. The low mass of the switches combined
with their optimized damping prevents any contact bouncing or
reclosing of the switch that would initiate an arc and collapse
the voltage across the unprotected contacts. The switches then
achieve an open and safe stable “off” state.

After the micro switch is opened (see Fig. 2), the load current
now resonantly reverse charges the pulse capacitor and provides
an increasing back voltage. The back voltage acts counter to
the load system voltages to rapidly reduce the load current. It
is important to note that the open micro switch contacts sustain
the voltage and protect the circuit while the transient current
reacts with the pulse circuitry. During this process, the initially
equal pulse bridge branch currents rapidly start to unbalance.
The diverted load current acts to increase the current in one
pair of pulse bridge diodes while the current in the remaining
pair decreases. When the decreasing pair branch current reaches
zero, those paired diodes open, and the remaining diode pair
branch current assumes the decreasing load current. Finally, the
load current is reduced to zero when the pulse capacitor voltage
becomes equal to and oppositely directed to the load voltage
source. At this event, the diodes turn off, and load current stops.
This turn-off transient process can be much longer than the
20-μs bridge pulse current used to open the contacts and
protect the load. The transient recharge duration is determined
by the load and power circuit inductances and the decreasing
voltage difference between the capacitor voltage and the source
voltage. Typically, this turn-off transient requires about 100 μs
but is directly dependent upon the total circuit inductance.
While the load is back charging the capacitor, the load is
isolated and protected by the physically separated contacts of
the micro switch, and the reverse-biased diodes in the parallel
pulsing circuit contribute a miniscule leakage across the micro
switch terminals.
IV. LOAD SWITCHING EXPERIMENTS
Using the MEMS-based arc-free switching technology just
described, arcless switching in a laboratory-scale environment
for both ac and dc systems has been demonstrated. With the
ability to detect, make a decision, and open a circuit in a few
microseconds, this technology is equally applicable to both ac
and dc systems. The 60-Hz sinusoid of an ac signal, when
evaluated over a few microseconds, has minimal voltage and
current ﬂuctuations and appears nearly like dc. The switching
speed as well as the ohmic contacts are factors that enable the
switching system compatibility with both ac and dc powers.
The applicability to both ac and dc systems is a result of its
speed, the linearity of its ohmic contacts, and the bipolar nature
of the diode bridge. Microsecond switching speed also has an
advantage in protection systems. With fault current rates of rise
as quick as 30 A/μs, every microsecond counts in a protection
device’s ability to limit the system fault energy. The fast arcless
switching technology presented in this paper can interrupt fault
currents nearly instantaneously, with the result that prospective
fault currents of any magnitude can be limited to values dictated
by the application, not the interruption device’s limitations. A
prospective current of over 100 000 A can be limited to a few
hundred amperes via current interruption over the span of a
few tens of microseconds. This rapid switching system enables
the capability to limit fault currents, to open faulted circuits
without generating an arc, to be resettable after a fault, and to
be compatible to both ac and dc switching systems. The same
mechanism can be used to transfer a load from one source
Fig. 6. (a) Oscilloscope trace showing current sharing of a resistive load
through four parallel MEMS devices assembled on a board. (b) Oscilloscope
trace showing the voltage rise and equivalent grading required for MEMS
devices and their grading network to share and sustain voltage within microsec-
onds after the opening.
to another within the same time frame, allowing for source
transfers within tens of microseconds.
A single-beam micro switching device has limited voltage
and current carrying capacity. To achieve capacity beyond
that of a single-beam device, both series switch scalability
(to increase ability to withstand voltage) and parallel switch
scalability (to increase steady-state and transient current han-
dling capacities) are demonstrated to be feasible. To maximize
the off-state hold-off voltage of a series switch string, a resistive
grading network is connected in parallel to equally divide the
off-state voltage across each switch. The resultant circuit to-
pography enables the series string hold-off voltage to reach the
sum of the individual switch hold-off voltages. Minimizing the
grading network parasitic capacitance and inductance assures
that voltages will be balanced across the switches within a
fraction of a microsecond after the switch contacts part. It is
also possible to scale both the steady-state and transient current
handling capacities of a switching system by adding additional
devices in parallel. Again, by minimizing parasitic inductance
and capacitance between the switch and the protection circuitry
to nanohenry and picofarad levels, current can be transferred
to and from the ultrafast mechanical micro switches equally
and within a microsecond, as shown in Fig. 6, such that no
single device carries a majority of the current during very fast
transient events.

Both ac and dc loads are capable of drawing an inrush current
that is multiple times greater than the steady-state current.
The inrush typically lasts milliseconds to seconds depending
on the load. Managing this inrush is a critical aspect of the
technology. Because the size of the switching element is smaller
than a hair and its mass is miniscule, the heat generated at the
contact is quickly conducted through the ultrasmall switching
element so that it reaches equilibrium in less than a second.
Inrush effects and the current sharing capability of small switch
arrays were studied by utilizing a resistive load composed of
12 parallel 60-W light bulbs. The light bulb array was switched
on and off at 1 Hz by our MEMS-based power switching
system. The systems consisted of five individual MEMS de-
vice arrays that were configured to carry and switch the load.
When the light bulbs were energized to 60-V dc, a 13-A peak
current with a 1-ms-duration inrush could be handled by the
MEMS switches. The system, shown in Fig. 5 along with
oscilloscope traces of open and close events, was switched for
well over 1000 operations without any noticeable performance
changes.
AC and dc motors have been switched on and off to quantify
effects of switching inductive loads at voltages under 50 V.
These experiments were conducted with a 3/4-hp ac and a
1/2-hp dc unloaded motor. Motors present two specific chal-
lenges to the switching system, the first being the lengthier in-
rush current during start-up and the second being the inductive
voltage kick that appears across the switch when turning off
the motor load. The MEMS-based switching system sustained
milliseconds of inrush and also successfully handled the rapid
inductive buildup of voltage when the system switched off.
A significant advantage of MEMS-based switching systems
is realized when protecting against prospective fault and short-
circuit currents. Fault currents rise rapidly (in microseconds),
so the ability to interrupt these rapidly rising currents nearly
instantaneously prevents the short-circuit current from reaching
dangerous and destructive levels. A 16 000-A prospective fault
current was experimentally simulated using a 9-F capacitor
bank that was charged to 25 V. The fault current pulse was
generated when charged capacitors were connected across a
low-value resistive load. To verify that the current could reach
dangerous levels in the unprotected circuit, a 10-A fuse was
placed in series with the resistive load, and when the circuit was
shorted, the fuse vaporized under the peak current pulse. The
same experiment was performed using a 10-A circuit breaker. In
a similar fashion to the fuse experiment, the breaker protected
against the full peak current but the breaker’s metal contacts
were vaporized from the arc that was generated, and the breaker
was destroyed. In both cases where conventional fault protec-
tion was employed, the duration of the fault current was many
milliseconds. Finally, the MEMS-based protection system was
put in series with the load along with both the fuse and the
breaker. For experimental simplicity, a timing circuit was used
to initiate the protection sequence in 8 μs after the fault event.
A Hall effect current sensor or other sensing technology could
be used to detect overcurrent and command a trip in a similar
time frame. In Fig. 7, the circuit was shorted into the charged
capacitor bank, and the MEMS-based switching system limited
the current to 4 A and opened the circuit in microseconds,
Fig. 7. Oscilloscope traces. (Pink trace) Rapid rise and successful arc-free
and fault-limiting trip of a 9-F capacitor bank charged to ∼25 V and 16-kA
prospective short-circuit current limited to 4 A in 16 μs. The blue trace is the
microsecond fall of the switch’s gate signal, and the green trace is the 16-μs
protection pulse through the diode bridge.
thereby protecting both the circuit breaker and the fuse. This
experiment demonstrated that the microsecond switching speed
of the micromechanical MEMS-based switch incorporating the
discussed protection electronics does successfully limit fault
currents to a level that is multiple orders of magnitude below
today’s best protection devices.
V. CONCLUSION
The authors believe that a revolutionary new type of ul-
trafast mechanical switching and protection system has been
developed. The system employs MEMS-based switches that
can open and close circuits in microseconds. The developed
pulse diode bridge technology enables the ultrafast mechanical
switches to open while current is flowing and to close with
voltage across their contacts, both in an arc-free manner. This
novel switching capability has been shown to be scalable up
to 600-V ac and has been shown to successfully open and
close into both resistive and inductive loads. In addition, the
benefit of microsecond speed switching has been demonstrated
by successfully protecting both a fuse and a circuit breaker from
a 16 000-A prospective short-circuit current by switching off
the fault current within microseconds and limiting the current
to only a few amperes. This technology has the potential to
provide next-generation protection capability by enabling fast
mechanical switching speeds that limit fault currents up to
100×, reduce fault energies by up to 1 000 000×, switch loads
and faulted circuits to be completely arc free.
The experimentation carried out so far has shown that the
switch mechanisms can be scaled upward from milliamperes
to tens of amperes and from millivolts to hundreds of volts.
With further application-specific development, it is possible
that this type of switching could take over from traditional
mechanical switching for overcurrent protection and control
and transfer switch applications. The fast switching enables
supervising electronics to control multiple switching devices
simultaneously allowing, essentially, one processor to con-
trol interruption, source transfer, or completely change a

distribution scheme’s topology within 20 microseconds, much
less than typical mechanical systems that switch within one-half
of a power cycle. The switching does not differentiate between
dc and ac currents, handling both with equal facility further
expanding potential applications.
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Annalen Physik, vol. 273, no. 5, pp. 69–96, 1889.
[18] J. S. Townsend, The Theory of Ionization of Gases by Collision. London,
U.K.: Constable & Co., 1910.
[19] D. Hyman and M. Mehregany, “Contact physics of gold microcontacts for
MEMS,” in Proc. 44th IEEE Holm Conf., 1998, pp. 133–140.
[20] J. Wang, “Analysis, design, fabrication and testing of a MEMS switch
for power applications,” Massachusetts Inst. Technol., Cambridge, MA,
2000.
[21] S. Majumder, N. E. McGruer, and G. G. Adams, “Adhesion and contact
resistance in an electrostatic MEMS micro switch,” in Proc. 18th IEEE
Int. Conf. Micro Electro Mech. Syst., pp. 215–218, 2005.
Chris Keimel received the B.S. degree in materials
science and engineering from Cornell University,
Ithaca, NY, and the M.S. degree in electrical engi-
neering from Princeton University, Princeton, NJ.
Since 2003, he has been with the General Electric
Global Research Center, Niskayuna, NY, where he
is currently a Process Development Engineer lead-
ing the MEMS switch efforts. His research inter-
ests include the materials, fabrication, design, and
integration of micro- and nanoscale mechanical and
electronic devices including MEMS, nanoelectrome-
chanical systems, and quantum dots. He is currently the holder of eight granted
patents and has authored or coauthored more than ten journal publications.
Glenn Claydon received the B.S. degree in electrical
engineering from Union College, Schenectady, NY,
in 1985.
He has been with the General Electric Global
Research Center, Niskayuna, NY, for 31 years.
His career has spanned multiple technology areas
including power electronics, application specific in-
tegrated circuits, electronic packaging, high-density
interconnects, and MEMS. Within the power elec-
tronics field, he developed and assembled high-
frequency switching power supplies and dc/dc con-
verters. He also designed high-voltage BiCMOS “smart power” ASICs for
controlling these power supplies and converters. After years in power electron-
ics, his research focused on advanced packaging and interconnect technologies
for microelectronics. In recent years, he has worked on MEMS prototype
designs and process development as well as photonic polymer waveguide
process development and integration. Constant throughout all these phases has
been his expertise in computer-aided design tools, particularly those associated
with design simulation, layout, and verification. He has more than 20 refereed
publications in a wide variety of journals and conference proceedings and is
the holder of 31 patents. He is green belt certified by the GE Six Sigma quality
management program.
Bo Li received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in elec-
trical engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University,
Xi’an, China, in 1999 and 2002, respectively, and the
Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Carnegie
Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, in 2007.
Since 2008, he has been with the General Electric
Global Research Center, Niskayuna, NY, as an Elec-
trical Engineer. His research interests are microsys-
tems, sensors, and medical devices and systems.
John N. Park received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D.
degrees in electrical engineering from Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Troy, NY, in 1953, 1956,
and 1966, respectively.
From 1956 to 1976, he was with Electrical Engi-
neering Faculty, RPI, where he was responsible for
electronics research and the teaching of both gradu-
ate and undergraduate electrical engineering courses
as well as serving as a Consultant to private industry.
After leaving RPI, he was with the General Electric
Global Research Center (GE-GRC), Niskayuna, NY,
from 1976 to 1998. Since retirement and to date, he has conducted research
in power electronics as a part-time Consultant to private industries and to
GE-GRC. He has worked in the fields of power electronics, signal-level
electronics, and electronic device physics.
Marcelo E. Valdes received the B.S. degree in elec-
trical engineering from Cornell University, Ithaca,
NY, in 1977.
He has been with General Electric (GE) for over
31 years, in field engineering, sales, marketing, and
application engineering. He is currently the Manager
of Application Engineering with GE Industrial Solu-
tions, Plainville, CT, where he provides application
engineering and strategic product planning leader-
ship. He has authored or coauthored over a dozen
papers for IEEE and other engineering forums and
is the holder of ten patents in the field of power systems protection and circuit
breaker trip systems.
Mr. Valdes is the past Chair of the IEEE Power Engineering Society chapter
and IEEE Industry Applications Society chapter in San Jose, CA, and the IEEE
Industry Applications Society chapter in San Francisco, CA. He is a Registered
Professional Electrical Engineer in the State of California.

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