Suppression of wear in cyclically loaded polycrystalline silicon MEMS via a thin silicon carbide coating

Author

Laboriante, I. ; Klejwa, N. ; Suwandi, A. ; Carraro, C. ; Howe, Roger T. ; Maboudian, R.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Chem. & Biomol. Eng., Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA, USA

fYear

2011

fDate

5-9 June 2011

Firstpage

2319

Lastpage

2322

Abstract

The surfaces of a microfabricated polysilicon test structure, designed to measure adhesion forces in MEMS, were modified with a thin (~50 nm) silicon carbide coating to take advantage of the outstanding tribological, electrical, and chemical properties of polycrystalline SiC (polySiC). Adhesion forces in polySiC-coated interfaces as a function of apparent area of contact have been determined quantitatively and compared to those in uncoated polycrystalline silicon (polySi) contacts. A detailed study of changes in physico-chemical surface properties after >;100 billion contact cycles is also presented, highlighting suppression of wear upon SiC coating.

Keywords

amorphous semiconductors; coatings; crystallisation; microfabrication; silicon; wear testing; MEMS; Si; adhesion forces; microfabrication; physico-chemical surface properties; polycrystalline silicon; polysilicon test; thin silicon carbide coating; wear suppression; Adhesives; Contacts; Micromechanical devices; Silicon; Silicon carbide; Surface morphology; Surface roughness; MEMS; polycrystalline silicon; silicon carbide; solid lubrication; stiction; wear resistance;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Conference (TRANSDUCERS), 2011 16th International

Conference_Location

Beijing

ISSN

Pending

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-0157-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/TRANSDUCERS.2011.5969544

Filename

5969544