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Millions of micro electro mechanical system sensors are fabricated each year using an ultra-clean process that allows for a vacuum-encapsulated cavity. These devices have a multi-layer structure that contains hidden layers with highly doped silicon, which makes common imaging techniques ineffective. Thus, examining device features post-fabrication, and testing, is a significant challenge. Here, we use a combination of micro- and nano-scale x-ray computed tomography to study device features and assess failure mechanisms in such devices without destroying the ultra-clean cavity. This provides a unique opportunity to examine surfaces and trace failure mechanisms to specific steps in the fabrication process.

Understanding and controlling modal coupling in micro/nanomechanical devices is integral to the design of high-accuracy timing references and inertial sensors. However, insight into specific physical mechanisms underlying modal coupling, and the ability to tune such interactions is limited. Here, we demonstrate that tuneable mode coupling can be achieved in capacitive microelectromechanical devices with dynamic electrostatic fields enabling strong coupling between otherwise uncoupled modes. A vacuum-sealed microelectromechanical silicon ring resonator is employed in this work, with relevance to the gyroscopic lateral modes of vibration. It is shown that a parametric pumping scheme can be implemented through capacitive electrodes surrounding the device that allows for the mode coupling strength to be dynamically tuned, as well as allowing greater flexibility in the control of the coupling stiffness. Electrostatic pump based sideband coupling is demonstrated, and compared to conventional strain-mediated sideband operations. Electrostatic coupling is shown to be very efficient, enabling strong, tunable dynamical coupling., Micro- and nanomechanical resonators play a crucial role in sensing applications. Here, the authors demonstrate electrically tunable modal coupling in capacitive microelectromechanical gyroscopic ring resonators that allows for improving the performance micro/nano-sensors relying on precise control of the degree of modal coupling.

We analyze thermoelastic dissipation in composite silicon MEMS resonators that exhibit multiple mechanical and thermal modes with complex dynamics. Silicon resonators that are coated with thin films of silicon dioxide can have near-zero temperature coefficients of frequency, making them attractive for use as precision time references. The quality factor of MEMS resonators can be dominated by thermoelastic dissipation (TED), which is triggered by the relaxation of mechanically induced temperature gradients. Recently, Chandorkar et al. (2009) have shown an expression of TED based on entropy generation as a weighted sum of the modal solutions of the three-dimensional heat transfer equation. This expression was obtained for weak coupling between mechanical and thermal dynamics. Applying this same technique to a fully coupled solution to the dynamics, we show that the TED contribution of the dominant thermal modes can be inhibited in the presence of a thin silicon dioxide film. Reduction of the contribution from the dominant thermal mode is shown with increasing oxide. We studied the effects of varying oxide film thickness and beam length. The quality factor was simulated for each unique case and compared to multimode energy dissipation. Our results suggest with some variability, thin film oxide coating affects the thermal relaxation of the composite resonator in the direction of lower TED and increased quality factor.

Parametric amplification, resulting from intentionally varying a parameter in a resonator at twice its resonant frequency, has been successfully employed to increase the sensitivity of many micro- and nano-scale sensors. Here, we introduce the concept of self-induced parametric amplification, which arises naturally from nonlinear elastic coupling between the degenerate vibration modes in a micromechanical disk-resonator and is not externally applied. The device functions as a gyroscope wherein angular rotation is detected from Coriolis coupling of elastic vibration energy from a driven vibration mode into a second degenerate sensing mode. While nonlinear elasticity in silicon resonators is extremely weak, in this high quality-factor device, ppm-level nonlinear elastic effects result in an order-of-magnitude increase in the observed sensitivity to Coriolis force relative to linear theory. Perfect degeneracy of the primary and secondary vibration modes is achieved through electrostatic frequency tuning, which also enables the phase and frequency of the parametric coupling to be varied and we show that the resulting phase and frequency dependence of the amplification follow the theory of parametric resonance. We expect that this phenomenon will be useful for both fundamental studies of dynamic systems with low dissipation and for increasing signal-to-noise ratio in practical applications such as gyroscopes.

Understanding bubble dynamics is critical to the design and optimization of two-phase microchannel heat sinks. This paper presents a hybrid experimental and computational methodology that reconstructs the three-dimensional bubble geometry, as well as provides other critical information associated with nucleating bubbles in microchannels. Rectangular cross-section silicon microchannels with hydraulic diameters less than 200 lm were fabricated with integrated heaters for the flow experiments, and the working liquid used was wa- ter. Bubbles formed via heterogeneous nucleation and were observed to grow from the silicon side walls of the channels. Two-dimensional images and two-component liquid velocity field measurements during bubble growth were obtained using micron-resolution particle image velocimetry (lPIV). These measurements were combined with iterative three-dimensional numerical simulations using finite element software, FEMLAB. The three- dimensional shape and location of the bubble were quantified by identifying the geometry that provided the best match between the computed flow field and the lPIV data. The reconstructed flow field through this process reproduced the experimental data within an er- ror of 10-20%. Other important information such as contact angles and bubble growth rates can also be estimated from this methodology. This work is an important step toward understanding the physical mechanisms behind bubble growth and departure.

Although crystalline silicon is not generally considered susceptible to fatigue crack growth, recent studies suggest that there may be fatigue processes in silicon micro-machined structures. In the present study, a micro-machined fracture specimen geometry was used to examine stable crack growth under fatigue loading. Crack length and loads were carefully monitored throughout the test to distinguish between environmentally assisted crack growth (stress corrosion) and mechanically induced fatigue-crack growth. Results revealed similar steplike crack extension versus time for the cyclic and monotonic tests. The fatigue crack-growth curve extracted from the crack extension data exhibited a nearly vertical slope with no evidence of accelerated crack-growth rates. Fracture surfaces for the monotonic and cyclic tests were similar, further suggesting that a true mechanical fatigue crack-growth mechanism did not occur. Explanations for the observed lack of fatigue crack growth are presented and discussed with respect to reported stress-life behavior.

We report on unique measurements of multiple microsecond-duration arrest periods during the propagation of high speed (>1 km s−1) cracks in micromachined single-crystal silicon specimens. These events were recorded electronically and in physical features remaining on the fracture plane. Using time-of-flight calculations, we have determined that these arrest patterns are due to the interference of boundary-reflected stress waves with the propagating crack tip. The specimen size, the measurement method, and the low acoustic attenuation in cyrstalline silicon facilitated the observation of these phenomena.

A micromachined specimen with a test section only 150-μm thick was developed for investigating subcritical crack growth in silicon. Crack growth rates in the range 10−4–10−10m/s were measured as a function of applied stress intensity (v–Kcurves) during tests in humid air and dry nitrogen lasting up to 24 h. The fracture toughness,KIcof {110} silicon was also measured at 1.15 ± 0.08 MPa m1/2. While some evidence MPa-m1/2of subcritical crack growth appeared to occur in the region 0.9KIc 0.98KIc, the extremely high crack growth exponent (n100) and the high ratio of the apparent stress corrosion threshold,KIscc, to the fracture toughness,KIscc/KIc> 0.9, suggests that no clear evidence exists for a stress corrosion process in silicon exposed to humid air.

Micromechanical resonators are promising replacements for quartz crystals for timing and frequency references owing to potential for compactness, integrability with CMOS fabrication processes, low cost, and low power consumption. To be used in high performance reference application, resonators should obtain a high quality factor. The limit of the quality factor achieved by a resonator is set by the material properties, geometry and operating condition. Some recent resonators properly designed for exploiting bulk-acoustic resonance have been demonstrated to operate close to the quantum mechanical limit for the quality factor and frequency product (Q-f). Here, we describe the physics that gives rise to the quantum limit to the Q-f product, explain design strategies for minimizing other dissipation sources, and present new results from several different resonators that approach the limit.

We report detection of forces as small as 1.4 × 10-18 N in a 1 Hz bandwidth using ultrathin silicon cantilevers operating at liquid helium temperatures. Cantilever fabrication, the importance of surface cleanliness and various measurement issues are discussed. Tip–surface interactions are described, including the detection of single electron trapping–untrapping events. Applications of attonewton force detection for single spin magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM) and ultrasensitive magnetometry are discussed.

We are fabricating sub-collimating X-ray grids that are to be used in an orbiting solar X-ray telescope. The telescope optics consist of twelve rotating pairs of high aspect ratio grids. The pitch for the grids ranges from 34 μm to 317 μm. The grid thickness-to-grid-slit ratio must be approximately 50:1, resulting in grid thicknesses of 1 to 10 millimeters. We are implementing a design in which a 34 μm pitch, free-standing PMMA grid is fabricated with 20 μm wide slits through a 800 μm thickness. After exposure and developing, metal is electrodeposited into the slits in the PMMA grid and the PMMA is left in place to hold the individual metal pieces. For optimum imaging performance, the root-mean-square pitch of the two grids of each pair must match to within 1 part in 10000 and simultaneous exposures of stacked sheets of PMMA have insured that this requirement is met.

Time dependent sub-critical cracking associated with environmental species such as moisture may have significant implications for the reliability of MEMS devices made of silicon. However, the existence of such stress corrosion phenomena in silicon remains controversial. Sub-critical crack-growth behavior in brittle materials is commonly characterized using crack velocity versus applied stress intensity curves (v-K curves). Crack velocity is inferred by curve-fitting crack length versus time data taken at low sample rates (

A new technique of measuring thin film stress with a tunneling sensor is presented. Basic measurement concepts, preliminary results on thin film stress measurement, and fabrication processes for the tunneling stress measurement sensor are described. The feasibility of implementing this technique for in-situ stress monitoring during thin film deposition demonstrated.