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Nano-scale Tribological Behavior of Polycrystalline Silicon Structural Films in Ambient Air

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

Daan Hein Alsem ,
Ruben van der Hulst ,
Eric A. Stach ,
Michael T. Dugger ,
Jeff Th. M. de Hosson  and
Robert O. Ritchie
Daan Hein Alsem
Affiliation:
dhalsem@lbl.gov, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Materials Sciences Division / National Center for Electron Microscopy, 1 Cyclotron Road MS72/150, Berkeley, CA, 94720, United States, +1 510 495 2455, +1 510 486 5888
Ruben van der Hulst
Affiliation:
rubzzzz@gmail.com, University of Groningen, Department of Applied Physics, Groningen, 9747 AG, Netherlands
Eric A. Stach
Affiliation:
eastach@purdue.edu, Purdue University, School of Materials Engineering and Birck Nanotechnology Center, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, United States
Michael T. Dugger
Affiliation:
mtdugge@sandia.gov, Sandia National Laboratories, Materials Science and Engineering Center, Albuquerque, NM, 87185, United States
Jeff Th. M. de Hosson
Affiliation:
j.t.m.de.hosson@phys.rug.nl, University of Groningen, Department of Applied Physics, Groningen, 9747 AG, Netherlands
Robert O. Ritchie
Affiliation:
RORitchie@lbl.gov, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Materials Sciences Division, Berkeley, CA, 94720, United States
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Abstract

Dynamic friction, wear volumes and wear morphology have been studied for sliding wear in polysilicon in ambient air at μN normal loads using on-chip micron-scale test specimens. With increasing number of wear cycles, the friction coefficients show two distinct types of behavior: (i) an increase by a factor of two and a half to a steady-state regime after peaking at three times the initial value of about 0.10 ± 0.04, with no failure after millions of cycles; (ii) an increase by a factor larger than three followed by failure after ∼105 cycles. Additionally, the average nano-scale wear coefficient sharply increased in the first ∼105 cycles up to about 10−4 and then decayed by an order of magnitude over the course of several million cycles. For both modes of behavior, abrasive wear is the governing mechanism, the difference being attributed to variations in the local surface morphology (and wear debris) between the sliding surfaces. The oxidation of worn polysilicon surfaces only affects the friction coefficient after periods of inactivity (>30 min).

Keywords

tribologySimicroelectro-mechanical (MEMS)
Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 1085: Symposium T – Nanoscale Tribology–Impact for Materials and Devices , 2008 , 1085-T01-04
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2008

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