An easy-to-fabricate improved microinstrument for systematically investigating adhesion between MEMS sidewalls

► This paper reports on a MEMS device that can be used to study sidewall stiction. ► Details on the design, fabrication, modeling and testing of the device are reported. ► The device is easy to fabricate and overcomes some of the limitations of other devices. ► The apparent adhesion energy of OTS SAM coated sidewalls is approximately 38 μJ/m2.