Modeling of forces on large MEMS
- Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
Considerable progress has so far been achieved in the fabrication of Micro Electro Mechanical (MEM) structures made of Single Crystal Silicon. However, a detailed mechanistic study of the forces applied on MEM structures during and after fabrication is far from completion. Such studies are essential for the design of large (few mm) MEMS made of micron size features and gaps, because they have large surface to volume ratio. The surface and interface forces play a major role in their overall performance. We model the major forces applied on the MEM structures. They are: (1) Internal forces due to intrinsic strains of thin films and mismatch of the materials thermal coefficients of expansion. Such forces may deform large MEMS and render them non-planar with limited usefulness. We study the internal stresses and the corresponding deformations of large MEMS fabricated by the SCREAM (Single Crystal Reactive Ion Etching and Metallization) process developed at Cornell. We show that large planar structures can indeed be fabricated by the process by carefully designing the cross section of beams that form the structures. The study is verified by experiments.
- OSTI ID:
- 175279
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-950686--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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