Precision in-plane hand assembly of bulk microfabricated components for high-voltage MEMS arrays applications
Name
Gassend-2009-Precision in-plane hand assembly of bulk microfabricated components for high-voltage MEMS arrays applications.pdf
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Author(s)
Akinwande, Akintunde Ibitayo
Velasquez-Garcia, Luis Fernando
Gassend, Blaise
Date Issued
April 2009
Journal
Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Citation
Gassend, B., L.F. Velasquez-Garcia, and A.I. Akinwande. “Precision In-Plane Hand Assembly of Bulk-Microfabricated Components for High-Voltage MEMS Arrays Applications.” Microelectromechanical Systems, Journal of 18.2 (2009): 332-346. ©2009 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
This paper reports the design and experimental validation of an in-plane assembly method for centimeter-scale bulk-microfabricated components. The method uses mesoscaled deep-reactive-ion-etching (DRIE)-patterned cantilevers that deflect and lock into small v-shaped notches as a result of the hand-exerted rotation between the two components of the assembly. The assembly method is intended for MEMS arrays that necessitate a 3-D electrode structure because of their requirement for low leakage currents and high voltages. The advantages of the assembly method include the ability to decouple the process flow of the components, higher overall device yield, modularity, reassembly capability, and tolerance to differential thermal expansion. Both tapered and untapered cantilevers were studied. Modeling of the cantilever set shows that the springs provide low stiffness while the assembly process is in progress and high stiffness once the assembly is completed, which results in a robust assembly. In addition, analysis of the linearly tapered cantilever predicts that the optimal linearly tapered beam has a cantilever tip height equal to 37% of the cantilever base height, which results in more than a threefold increase in the clamping force for a given cantilever length and deflection, compared to the untapered case. The linear taper profile achieves 80% of the optimal nonlinear taper profile, which would be impractical to fabricate. Analysis of the experimental data reveals a biaxial assembly precision of 6.2-mum rms and a standard deviation of 0.6 mum for assembly repeatability. Electrical insulation was investigated using both thin-film coatings and insulating substrates. Leakage currents less than 1 nA at 2 kV were demonstrated. Finally, this paper provides selected experimental data of a gated MEMS electrospray array as an example of the application of the assembly method.
Subjects
high-voltage MEMS packaging
Electrospray
MEMS hand assembly
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1109/JMEMS.2008.2011115
