A compact reciprocating vacuum microtribometer

This article reports on a newly developed reciprocating microtribometer for evaluating the tribological performance of materials and coatings in vacuum and controllable atmospheres on the micro- and milli-Newton scale. The microtribometer consists of a piezo driving table, an elastic force sensor and two laser interferometers to precisely detect normal and lateral deflections of the force sensor. Friction experiments involving Si–Si tribopairs were performed in ambient and vacuum conditions to validate the microtribometer. These measurements compare well with measurements performed on a commercial microtribometer under similar conditions as well as with values published in literature using other types of tribometers.