Temperature effect on tribological and mechanical properties of MEMS

The scope of this paper is to analyze the temperature effect on tribological and mechanical properties of materials used in the fabrication of the flexible components from Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS). Using a temperature control system and an atomic force microscope (AFM) with a nanoindentation module, the changes of the mechanical and tribological properties of MEMS material as a function of temperature are investigated. The temperature has influence on the tribological and mechanical behaviors of materials based on thermal relaxation. Firstly, the temperature effect on hardness and contact stiffness of MEMS materials is investigated. The coupling of the strain field to a temperature field provides an energy dissipation mechanism that allows the material to relax. In the case of investigated MEMS materials, the relaxation strength to be considered is that of the modulus of elasticity with influence on contact stiffness and hardness. Secondly, the temperature influence on tribological properties is determined. The tribological investigation of interest is the friction force measurement as a function of temperature. The direct measurement of the temperature effect on tribological and mechanical behavior of MEMS materials is important in order to improve the reliability design of MEMS and to increase the lifetime of microstructures from MEMS applications.