A MICRO-TRIBOTESTER FOR EVALUATING FRICTION AND WEAR ON SIDE CONTACTING SURFACES IN BULK-MICROFABRICATED DEVICES

摘要

A micro-tribotester has been designed and fabricated to evaluate friction and wear on lateral contact surfaces of silicon materials. In the design of the tribotester, FEM analysis was used to find the resonant frequency and elastic displacement of the device under electrostatic excitations. The micro-tribotester was fabricated with a standard bulk silicon process. Static and dynamic friction tests were done on the fabricated device under various DC and AC stimulation conditions. From the measured maximum deflections of the detecting beams in the loading and sliding directions, static and dynamic friction coefficients of contacting sidewalls have been obtained. Characteristics of tribological behaviors in MEMS were discussed.