Analysis of the surface effects on adhesion in MEMS structures

One of the main failure causes in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) is stiction. Stiction is the adhesion of contacting surfaces due to surface forces. Adhesion force depends on the operating conditions and is influenced by the contact area. In this study, the adhesion force between MEMS materials and the AFM tips is analyzed using the spectroscopy in point mode of the AFM. The aim is to predict the stiction failure mode in MEMS. The investigated MEMS materials are silicon, polysilicon, platinum, aluminum, and gold. Three types of investigations were conducted. The first one aimed to determine the variation of the adhesion force with respect to the variation of the roughness. The roughness has a strong influence on the adhesion because the contact area between components increases if the roughness decreases. The second type of investigation aimed to determine the adhesion force in multiple points of each considered sample. The values obtained experimentally for the adhesion force were also validated using the JKR and DMT models. The third type of investigation was conducted with the purpose of determining the influence of the temperature on the adhesion force.