< Back to previous page

Project

Investigation of In-use Stiction and Adhesion in Poly-SiGe MEMS

Stiction of the moving parts of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) is in general an unwanted failure mechanism, except for some applications such as memory switches where a temporary adhesion can be required. The reason for this stiction and its control are not fully understood.
The aim of this research is to investigate stiction and adhesion of MEMS and MEMS packages using various test structures and techniques. This requires the design and test of new dedicated test structures and the assessment of existing techniques for this application. Parameters that play a role in stiction will be studied and it will be investigated whether they can be controlled by changing the surface properties of the MEMS. For the latter purpose, various self-assembled monolayers (SAM) will be applied, their effect on stiction will be studied, and their reliability investigated.
Date:29 Sep 2008 →  3 Apr 2013
Keywords:Microelectronics, New thin films
Disciplines:Other engineering and technology
Project type:PhD project