Long Ni cantilever fabrication with new sacrificial process

Stiction of microstructure to a substrate by a capillary force is one of the main difficulties in surface micromachining. When the sacrificial layer is removed by a plasma etching, the stiction problem must be greatly reduced. However, a sample may be damaged by a plasma, because a long etching time is often necessary. In this report a new sacrificial process is proposed. Sacrificial layer is removed by a short plasma etching time. The long length Ni cantilevers are fabricated with this new process. The mechanical properties of the fabricated cantilevers are examined.