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Mechanisms of Fatigue in Polysilicon Mems Structures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

P. Shrotriya ,
S. Allameh ,
A. Butterwick ,
S. Brown  and
W.O. Soboyejo
P. Shrotriya
Affiliation:
The Princeton Materials Institute and Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, 1 Olden Street, Princeton, NJ.
S. Allameh
Affiliation:
The Princeton Materials Institute and Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, 1 Olden Street, Princeton, NJ.
A. Butterwick
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
S. Brown
Affiliation:
Exponent Failure Analysis and Associates, 21 Strathmore Road, Natick, MA.
W.O. Soboyejo
Affiliation:
The Princeton Materials Institute and Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University, 1 Olden Street, Princeton, NJ.
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Abstract

Fatigue crack initiation is shown to be associated with the stress-assisted evolution of a surface silica layer that forms during the normal exposure of unpassivated polysilicon surfaces to lab air In-situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques are used to reveal the evolution of overall surface topology during incremental cyclic deformation to failure. Linear perturbation analysis of stress-assisted dissolution is then utilized to predict the evolution of the surface morphology. The predictions from the perturbation analysis are shown to be consistent with measured surface morphologies obtained using AFM techniques.

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