Capillary Adhesion between the Micro-cantilever and the Substrate

摘要

In Microelectromechanical System (MEMS), the capillary force plays an important role owing to the strong capillary force often makes the suspended or moving structures in MEMS adhere to contact the substrate, which lead to the failure of the devices. This paper presents experimental and theoretical results that characterize the capillary adhesion of micro-cantilevers by means of capillary actuation. Micro-cantilever beams were loaded at various locations along the freestanding portion of the beam using the capillary force and the deflections of the beams were real-time and in-situ measured with micro speckle interferometry. The mechanical stability and adhesion of micro-cantilever under capillary forces were examined and the deflecting configurations of the beams and the relationship of the magnitude of the capillary force to the size of the specimen were presented.