Incorporation of Amorphous Metals into MEMS for High Performance and Reliability

摘要

Amorphous or amorphous derived metals have properties that can be very different from their crystalline counterparts. Since mechanisms for crystalline slip are absent, they can have high hardness and strength and exhibit high elastic strain before failure. Increasing the elastic limit of a component metal has the potential to enable the redesign of MEMS components to achieve higher performance for a given size device. To exploit these properties, Rockwell Scientific teamed with INEEL to develop the MEMS process flow to incorporate amorphous metals into MEMS devices. This report summarizes the results of a program to investigate one amorphous metal for MEMS insertion. The technologies developed in this program include: 1. Successful preparation of deposition targets by thermal spraying at INEEL. 2. Successful deposition of uniform coatings of amorphous alloy on silicon substrates by both laser ablation and sputtering. 3. Successful processing of MEMS test structures incorporating amorphous metals demonstrating. Only one amorphous alloy has been investigated and other amorphous alloys may prove more suitable for specific applications. Issues such as residual stress control, material property optimization and property characterization remain in need of further work.