Porous thin films with helical microstructures were fabricated with the Glancing Angle Deposition technique. These films consisted of arrays of “microsprings” whose geometries could be engineered with nanometer scale control. Some of the mechanical properties of these helically structured films were studied with a nanoindentation technique. Several microscopic “springbed” films were tested over a range of forces using a spherical indenter tip. The geometries of the microsprings were varied, and a number of different materials were used to fabricate these films, which were typically a few micrometers thick. Slanted post arrays, resembling micro-cantilevers, were also subjected to nanoindentation tests. Results of initial experiments, theory, and simulations show that these microstructures behave in a manner analogous to macroscopic springs and cantilevers, and may offer some insight into how materials behave at the microscale.

Chemical and physical effects of plasma exposed Si wafer pairs were investigated on Si wafer bonding. Oxygen plasma treated Si wafer pairs bonded more strongly at room temperature compared to chemically cleaned, hydrophilic and hydrophobic Si. After 50 hours of annealing at 105°C, the surface energy of the bonded Si pair reached the surface energy of bulk Si (100). X- ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) measurements indicated that the exposure of both hydrophilic and hydrophobic Si to oxygen plasma increased a SiO2 like state in the surface layer to a depth of 1.5 nm. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) study showed that plasma irradiation at 300 watts up to 30 seconds did not change surface roughness below 0.5 nm. Exposure to He plasma or N2 did result in enhanced bonding after annealing at 165°C, however, over smaller areas.

Relaxation of internal stress for micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) using SiO2 / Al2O3 / SiO2 membrane has been studied. The aluminum oxide thin films were formed by electron beam evaporation at room temperature. No peaks were observed in the X-ray diffraction pattern of the films. The ratio of Al and O in aluminum oxide was stoichiometric compared with Al2O3 target material. The internal stress was tensile at about 300-400 MPa. Bottom SiO2 thin film was formed by thermal oxidation and the top one by RF magnetron sputtering method. The internal stress of thermally oxidized SiO2 film was compressive at about 440 MPa, while that of the films deposited by sputtering, was compressive at about 100 MPa. The ratio of Si and O in each SiO2 thin films remained stoichiometric. The total stress of the membrane was controlled by optimizing the thickness of each film for relaxing the total stress of the membrane. The total stress of the membrane became almost zero under optimum conditions of SiO2 and Al2O3 films.

The microstructure of Low Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition (LPCVD) Polycrystalline silicon (Polysilicon) thin films was investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). SEM characterization of tensile tested samples showed a brittle like-rupture, along with grooves located at the surface sides of the sample. TEM investigations of as-deposited samples showed equiaxed or fully columnar grains bridging from the bottom to the top of the films. A microstructural coarsening was observed with annealing. In the as-deposited state, the films exhibited a {110} texture as showed by the XRD analysis. The films' top and bottom surfaces were observed to be smooth with a roughness (standard deviation) of about 11nm and 20 nm respectively. A chemical analysis of the thin films showed the presence of carbon and oxygen impurities on the surface and oxygen through the sample as observed in the depth profile. The hypothetical influence of these findings is subsequently discussed in relation to the measured mechanical properties.

There has been increasing interest in the development and use of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) for various applications. Some MEM devices such as gyroscopes, accelerometers and bolometers, must be sealed under vacuum, at pressures below 10 millitorr, for efficient operation. A gas absorbing material (getter) is placed in the packages of these devices, to help maintain vacuum levels over service lives of many years. Heating under vacuum, just prior to sealing the package, activates getter, of this type. This study was undertaken to develop a model that could be used to estimate the quantity of getter needed as well as optimize the activation process subject to process constraints on time and temperature.

The material studied was a titanium and zirconium-based alloy (7:3 by weight) non-evaporable getter in the form of strips produced by SAES Getters. The zirconium alloy consisted of zirconium (70.0%), vanadium (24.6%) and iron (5.4%) by weight. The getter was analyzed under different ambient conditions of temperature, time and atmospheric pressure. Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) depth profiling was used to analyze the diffusion depth of the contaminant gases absorbed by the getter material under each condition. The data acquired from the depth profiles were fit to a simple diffusion model. This model is currently being validated, by activating the getter material under various ambient conditions, and measuring pressures and gas compositions inside packages using a residual gas analyzer (RGA). The utility of this model for optimization of getter activation and estimating package vacuum levels over time will be discussed.

The mechanical properties of micromachined polysilicon are of great interest to designers of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices. Numerous investigations have been carried out to determine the strength of MEMS-fabricated polysilicon structures, and the experimental results vary widely, depending on the experimental techniques, specimen geometries, and processing conditions. In order to determine whether these variations are inherent to all mechanical properties of MEMS materials, the fracture toughness, Kcrit, of micromachined polysilicon has been investigated, using a wide range of material microstructures (microstructure is used here in the Materials Science sense to mean the grain structure visible in a microscope, and not in the MEMS sense to mean small structures). Since fracture toughness is a fundamental materials property, whether or not it varies with microstructure and processing is an interesting question. We have confirmed that Kcrit is not a microstructure-sensitive property, using surface-micromachined specimens with sharp pre-cracks which are integrated with electrostatic actuators. The measured Kcrit is 1.0±0.1 MPa √m for a wide range of miscrostructures.

The connection between processing effects and curvature of a free-standing poly-Si thin film MEMS structure is analyzed theoretically and compared to experimental data. Estimates are made for the strain resulting from processing and post-processing effects including Phosphorus implantation and chemically neutral ion-beam machining. The inferred strain distribution is used to predict the curvature of the free-standing structure upon release from its host substrate. Curvature predictions agree closely with experimental measurements for particular choices of the processing strain magnitudes. The analysis procedure is proposed as a means to determine the through-thickness stress distribution in a free-standing structure. The ion-beam machining procedure is found to be a useful method for planarizing free-standing thin film structures with undesirable curvature due to process-induced stress.

We describe a technique for trapping and manipulation of inorganic and organic objects in microfluidic channels, based on photonic momentum transfer using an optical tweezers arrangement. Microfluidic devices have been fabricated by polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomer molding of patterns lithographically defined on a thick negative photoresist. Polystyrene microspheres dispersed in water were transferred into the fluidic channels using a syringe pump. Microspheres and live biological cells are trapped and redirected by optical manipulation within the fluidic channels. Optical trapping and patterning will have applications in creation of active cellular arrays for cell biology research, tissue engineering, cell sorting and drug discovery.

This research focuses on the design and experimental characterization of two types of asym- metrical MEMS electrothermal microactuators. Both MEMS polysilicon electrothermal microac- tuator designs use resistive (Joule) heating to generate thermal expansion and movement. Deflection and force measurements as a function of applied electrical power are presented.

This paper presents the results of an atomic force microscopy (AFM) study of the evolution of surface topology in notched polysilicon MEMS structures deformed under cyclic loading at room temperature. The in-situ and ex-situ AFM studies reveal changes in surface topology after cyclic actuation at a relative humidity of ∼70%. These lead ultimately to large wavelength modulations close to the bottom of the notch, in the areas where the tensile stresses are maximum. This is in contrast with the wavelength of the surface modulations away from the notch, which remain relatively unchanged. The results are discussed in terms of possible chemical/surface processes that can occur in the presence of water vapor.

During the past several years, we have developed high displacement sensitivity tunneling accelerometers using surface micromachining and metal electroplating techniques. These devices consist of a Au tunneling tip fabricated below a 1-2 μm thick metal cantilever beam of electroplated Ni or Au. A thin film of e-beam evaporated Au on the underside of the cantilever serves as the tunneling counter electrode. In operation, a 100mV bias is applied across the tunneling gap. A larger turn-on voltage is also applied between the cantilever and a control electrode, located on the substrate, to deflect the cantilever and maintain a constant tunneling current of 1 or 10 nA. Typical deflections of the end of 100 μm-long and 250 μm-long cantilevers are 0.5μm during operation. We have observed that the turn-on voltage decreases over time for most devices with a larger drop observed for the Au cantilevers. In all cases, the initial decay of the turn-on voltage was almost completely recoverable after the device was turned off for 24 hrs. This decay was not found to be strongly dependent on the magnitude of the tunneling current, but could be significantly reduced by pre-stressing the cantilever before operation. Finally, a vacuum anneal at 100°C influences the measured temperature dependence of the turn-on voltage. The observed effects appear to be consistent with fatigue and creep phenomena in the cantilevers. These effects are reversible at room temperature and are dependent on the stress and temperature history of the devices. A comparison is made between metal plated and all-Si structures.

The high porosity and uniform pore size provided by mesoporous oxide films offer interesting opportunities for MEMS devices that require low density and low thermal conductivity. This paper describes recent efforts at adapting mesoporous films for MEMS fabrication. Mesoporous SiO2 and Al2O3 films were prepared using block copolymers as the structure-directing agents, leading to films which were 70% porous and < 5 nm surface roughness. A number of etchants were investigated and good etch selectivity was observed with both dry and wet systems. Micromachining methods were used to fabricate cantilevers, micro bridges and membranes.

The aim of this paper is a wide investigation at the micro scale of the elastic and inelastic properties of electroplated Nickel, which is extensively used in the LIGA techniques. Using a nano-indentation set-up, we have obtained the Berkovitch's hardness HB and the Young's modulus E. These mechanical properties are affected by the current densities used during the electroplating as well as the nature of the substrates. The roughness Ra was obtained thanks to confocal microscopy and a linear behavior of HB versus 1/ Ra corresponds to a Hall and Petch relation. The yield stress Y0 and the ultimate strength Q have been deduced from the experimental measurements using a Finite Element Method (FEM).Q has been found sensitive to the deposition conditions. Moreover (Y0+Q) has shown a linear dependence versus the hardness HB. Finally, Nickel microbeams fabricated by LIGA technique have been characterized with a bending test. The data deduced from this method, i.e. E and Y0+Q, are in good agreement with the results obtained by nano-indentation.

A major challenge in developing computer models for crevice corrosion lies in fabricating appropriate experimental crevice samples. The geometry and dimensions of these samples must be controlled to a high order of precision in order to be amenable for comparison to computational models. In this work we report an effort to construct crevice samples with rigorously defined dimensions by using microfabrication techniques developed for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). These techniques include microfabrication with SU- 8, electroplating, and other standard semiconductor device fabrication techniques as well. The crevice substrates contain one-dimensional arrays of metal electrodes to be studied, which are isolated by walls of SU-8. The electrodes have individual electrical connections so that spatial information of the in-situ corrosion process can be obtained. The crevice formers with SU-8 posts were coupled to crevice substrates to maintain a uniform crevice gap. Further, crevice formers with regular rectangular subcrevices were fabricated to study the roles of subcrevices in crevice corrosion.

Ferroelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) is the main industrial product in piezoelectric ceramic materials used for sensor and actuator applications. High precision in manufacturing of microelectromechanical systems is essential to get demanded performance accuracy. An adequate and preferably non-destructive measurement technique is desired to characterize the materials properties at various stages of device fabrication as well as to find correlation between the processing parameters, microstructure and functional properties. We report on a new pulsed technique, which has been employed to characterize all relevant properties of special machined array of PZT channels quickly, reliably and reproducibly: dielectric constant, loss factor tan σ, electromechanical coupling coefficient, resonance frequency and mechanical quality factor Q as well as temperature dependencies of these parameters.

Small amount of rare earth element La were added into the traditional Sn60-Pb40 solder alloy in order to improve the reliability of solder joints. The results of aging tests of solder joints showed that, the growth of interface Cu6Sn5 intermetallic compound was depressed by La addition. Furthermore, the thermal fatigue life of solder joints was improved by 3 times. Thermodynamic analysis indicated that La had higher affinity with Sn in the Sn-Pb-La system, and then the driving force for Cu6Sn5formation was reduced since the activity of Sn was lowered.

Micro-machined transparent components are of interest for optical MEMS and miniaturized biological systems. The glass ceramic GC6 developed by Corning is optically transparent, has a softening point in excess of 900°C, and a thermal expansion coefficient matched to silicon. These properties make it useful for the construction of devices that combine thin film silicon electronics with MEMS systems.

Both the ceramic precursor (green glass) and the glass ceramic etch at a similar rate, about 1/3 to 1/4 of that of SiO2 etched under the same conditions, indicating that chemistry rather than microstructure control the etch rate. The cleaning steps used to clean the glass precursor profoundly influence the degree of surface roughness that develops during subsequent plasma etching. In glass ceramics, the morphology of plasma etched surface is always very smooth and independent of the cleaning steps used. Assuming that the removal of spinel crystals is the rate limiting step in plasma etching glass ceramics can explain this observation.

Sputter-deposited piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin films with Ti/Pt and polysilicon electrode layers are being investigated for use in Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS). Existing research shows the nucleation of the perovskite phase of the PZT is linked to the lattice spacing of the underlying Pt electrode and/or seed layers, and is key in obtaining PZT layers with good piezoelectric/ferroelectric properties. Our research with piezoelectric PZT films on Ti/Pt electrode layers aims at employing these films to generate and receive acoustic waves in flexural plate wave devices (FPWs). Our experiments indicate the formation of a random polycrystalline perovskite phase is linked to the emergence of oriented <100> Pt grains within the dominant <111>-oriented crystal structure during rapid thermal annealing in an oxygen environment. Pt films annealed in nitrogen, in contrast, retained their <111> preferential orientation without the formation of Pt <100> grains. PZT films deposited on these electrodes and annealed in nitrogen were strongly oriented in the <111> direction, but exhibited lossy ferroelectric behavior and were prone to delamination. We are also investigating the feasibility of using doped polysilicon electrode layers with PZT thin films. The multiple layers used with the Pt electrode (Pt, Ti, and SiO2 adhesion layer) have significant interactions with one another, and replacing these layers with a single electrode layer should alleviate these complications. A low-temperature PZT deposition process (300°C) and short annealing cycles (30 sec.), coupled with a TiO2 barrier/seed layer should prevent interdiffusion and reactions between the polysilicon and PZT layers. Our experiments show that PZT films deposited and annealed on doped polysilicon layers develop a random polycrystalline perovskite phase, but are subject to tensile cracking. The use of polysilicon as an electrode layer should also facilitate the integration of piezoelectric PZT layers with polysilicon surface micromachined structures using SiGe sacrificial layers.

A method for determining geometric process errors in MEMS devices from the resonant fre- quencies of simple structures is presented. The ability to accurately determine the as-built ge- ometry of MEMS devices is important given the magnitude of the geometric uncertainty relative to the dimensions of these devices. As MEMS become smaller, the need for reliable metrology becomes even more important. The method presented here provides a way to determine the etch offset (the difference between the design width of a planar feature and the as-built width), the average angle of the side-walls and the compliance of the support of the structure. An important feature of the approach presented is that by using frequency ratios for various structural modes, neither the elastic modulus nor the mass density of the film need be known.

We present the experimental data for the morphological evolution of Si(110) etched with Potassium Hydroxide. The observed results are interpreted using a continuum equation. The results reveal the presence of unstable etching, which leads to the formation of a columnar structure on the surface. The early stage of the formation of this columnar structure can be explained by a linear theory. This instability is caused by anisotropic surface tension.