An easy-to-fabricate improved microinstrument for systematically investigating adhesion between MEMS sidewalls

• Published in: Applied surface science 2011-10, Vol.257 (24), p.10917-10925
• Main Authors: Ansari, N., Ashurst, W.R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adhesion; Adhesion energy; Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Contact; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Design engineering; Devices; Exact sciences and technology; Mathematical models; MEMS; Octadecyltrichloro-silane; Oxides; Physics; Sidewall; Stiction
• ISSN: 0169-4332; 1873-5584
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2011.07.142

► This paper reports on a MEMS device that can be used to study sidewall stiction. ► Details on the design, fabrication, modeling and testing of the device are reported. ► The device is easy to fabricate and overcomes some of the limitations of other devices. ► The apparent adhesion energy of OTS SAM coated sidewalls is approximately 38 μJ/m 2. Since many potential MEMS devices may involve contact between sidewalls, studying stiction between sidewalls can be critical to the commercial success of MEMS. However, to date, only a few microinstruments dedicated to investigate sidewall stiction have been reported and even they posses several limitations. Therefore, in this paper, we report on an improved microinstrument to study sidewall stiction, which not only addresses some of the limitations of other microinstruments but is also easy to fabricate. The design, fabrication and modeling of the microinstrument are described in the paper. The paper also reports the apparent work of adhesion of octadecyltrichloro-silane (OTS) coated sidewall surfaces as well as sidewall surfaces with only native oxide on them.