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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 February 2011
This paper reports typical failure modes of polymer microstructures. Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microstructures were fabricated using replication-based methods. The mechanical collapses of these structures were observed using scanning electron microscopy. In this work, we classified the mechanical collapses based on their individual geometries and discussed the mechanism of each failure mode. We also worked on solutions to recover these failed PDMS structures. This work helps to better understand the collapsing mechanism and to facilitate the development of control strategies to enhance the mechanical reliability of polymer microdevices.