Polycrystalline silicon carbide as a substrate material for reducing adhesion in MEMS

Gao, Di; Carraro, Carlo; Howe, Roger T.; Maboudian, Roya

doi:10.1007/s11249-006-9024-9

Cited by 15 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 31 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Their findings are consistent with earlier results where 3C-SiC films showed low coefficient of friction and superior scratch/wear resistance when compared to Si materials (Sundararajan, 1998). Recent results from the same group (Gao et al, 2006) also suggests that, using SiC as a substrate material significantly reduces the in-use stiction of Si MEMS structures.…”

Section: Sic Coated Memssupporting

confidence: 89%

A review of silicon carbide development in MEMS applications

Jiang

Cheung

2009

IJCMSSE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Due to its desirable material properties, Silicon Carbide (SiC) has become an alternative material to replace Si for Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) applications in harsh environments. To promote SiC MEMS development towards future cost-effective products, main technology areas in material deposition and processes have attracted significant interest. The developments in these areas have contributed to the rapid emergence of SiC MEMS prototypes. In this paper, we give an overview of the important developments in SiC material formation and fabrication processes in recent years. Some of the most interesting state-of-the-art SiC MEMS devices are reviewed. This highlights the major progresses in SiC MEMS developed thus far. This paper also looks into the prospect of SiC MEMS drawing attention to potential issues.

show abstract

Section: Sic Coated Memssupporting

confidence: 89%

A review of silicon carbide development in MEMS applications

Jiang

Cheung

2009

IJCMSSE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…10 The main component at 100.1 eV corresponds to bulk silicon in SiC, the second peak at 100.9 eV to surface silicon (because every surface Si atom is bounded to one oxygen atom only), and the third and weakest peak at 102.0 eV is typical of a residual silicon oxycarbide layer. 44 This oxycarbide layer was weakly visible even on freshly prepared SiC surfaces (after 2.5% HF etching). In addition, there is no sign of SiO 2 around 103−104 eV after modification.…”

Section: ■ Results and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Covalently Attached Organic Monolayers onto Silicon Carbide from 1-Alkynes: Molecular Structure and Tribological Properties

et al. 2013

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In order to achieve improved tribological and wear properties at semiconductor interfaces, we have investigated the thermal grafting of both alkylated and fluorine-containing ((C(x)F(2x+1))-(CH2)n-) 1-alkynes and 1-alkenes onto silicon carbide (SiC). The resulting monolayers display static water contact angles up to 120°. The chemical composition of the covalently bound monolayers was studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy (IRRAS), and near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy. These techniques indicate the presence of acetal groups at the organic-inorganic interface of alkyne-modified SiC surfaces. The tribological properties of the resulting organic monolayers with fluorinated or nonfluorinated end groups were explored using atomic force microscopy (AFM). It was found that the fluorinated monolayers exhibit a significant reduction of adhesion forces, friction forces, and wear resistance compared with non-fluorinated molecular coatings and especially bare SiC substrates. The successful combination of hydrophobicity and excellent tribological properties makes these strongly bound, fluorinated monolayers promising candidates for application as a thin film coating in high-performance microelectronic devices.

show abstract

“…SiC has also been shown to be successful as a tribological coating material for MEMS. For example, a polycrystalline SiC coating was used by Gao et al . to reduce adhesion in Si-based MEMS.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…SiC has also been shown to be successful as a tribological coating material for MEMS. For example, a polycrystalline SiC coating was used by Gao et al 26 to reduce adhesion in Si-based MEMS. Similarly, Ashurst et al 27 have shown that, under the contact pressure of 78 MPa, a SiC coating in the sidewall friction tester has less wear scarring than other MEMS materials.…”

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Size Dependence of Nanoscale Wear of Silicon Carbide

Tangpatjaroen

Grierson

Shannon

et al. 2017

ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Nanoscale, single-asperity wear of single-crystal silicon carbide (sc-SiC) and nanocrystalline silicon carbide (nc-SiC) is investigated using single-crystal diamond nanoindenter tips and nanocrystalline diamond atomic force microscopy (AFM) tips under dry conditions, and the wear behavior is compared to that of single-crystal silicon with both thin and thick native oxide layers. We discovered a transition in the relative wear resistance of the SiC samples compared to that of Si as a function of contact size. With larger nanoindenter tips (tip radius ≈ 370 nm), the wear resistances of both sc-SiC and nc-SiC are higher than that of Si. This result is expected from the Archard's equation because SiC is harder than Si. However, with the smaller AFM tips (tip radius ≈ 20 nm), the wear resistances of sc-SiC and nc-SiC are lower than that of Si, despite the fact that the contact pressures are comparable to those applied with the nanoindenter tips, and the plastic zones are well-developed in both sets of wear experiments. We attribute the decrease in the relative wear resistance of SiC compared to that of Si to a transition from a wear regime dominated by the materials' resistance to plastic deformation (i.e., hardness) to a regime dominated by the materials' resistance to interfacial shear. This conclusion is supported by our AFM studies of wearless friction, which reveal that the interfacial shear strength of SiC is higher than that of Si. The contributions of surface roughness and surface chemistry to differences in interfacial shear strength are also discussed.

show abstract

Polycrystalline silicon carbide as a substrate material for reducing adhesion in MEMS

Cited by 15 publications

References 31 publications

A review of silicon carbide development in MEMS applications

A review of silicon carbide development in MEMS applications

Covalently Attached Organic Monolayers onto Silicon Carbide from 1-Alkynes: Molecular Structure and Tribological Properties

Size Dependence of Nanoscale Wear of Silicon Carbide

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About