A moving-coil designed micro-mechanics tester with application on MEMS

A moving-coil designed micro-mechanics tester, named as MicroUTM (universal testing machine), is in-house developed in this paper for micro-mechanics tests. The main component is a moving coil suspended in a uniform magnetic field through a set of springs. When a current passes through the coil, the electromagnetic force is proportional to the magnitude of the current, so the load can easily be measured by the current. The displacement is measured using a capacitive sensor. The load is calibrated using a Sartorius BP211D analytical balance, with a resolution/range of 0.01 mg/80 g or 0.1 mg/210 g. The displacement is calibrated using a HEIDENHAIN CT-6002 length gauge with an accuracy of +/- 0.1 mu m. The calibration results show that the load range is +/- 1 N and the displacement range is +/- 300 mu m. The noise levels of the load and displacement are 50 mu N and 150 nm, respectively. The nonlinearity of the load is only 0.2%. Several in-plane load tests of the MEMS micro-cantilever are performed using this tester. Experimental results, with excellent repeatability, demonstrate the reliability of the load measurement as well as the flexible function of this tester.

Multi-scale analysis of AFM tip and surface interactions

Thoroughly understanding AFM tip-surface interactions is crucial for many experimental studies and applications. It is important to realize that despite its simple appearance, the system of tip and sample surface involves multiscale interactions. In fact, the system is governed by a combination of molecular force (like the van der Waals force), its macroscopic representations (such as surface force) and gravitational force (a macroscopic force). Hence, in the system, various length scales are operative, from sub-nanoscale (at the molecular level) to the macroscopic scale. By integrating molecular forces into continuum equations, we performed a multiscale analysis and revealed the nonlocality effect between a tip and a rough solid surface and the mechanism governing liquid surface deformation and jumping. The results have several significant implications for practical applications. For instance, nonlocality may affect the measurement accuracy of surface morphology. At the critical state of liquid surface jump, the ratio of the gap between a tip and a liquid dome (delta) over the dome height (y(o)) is approximately (n-4) (for a large tip), which depends on the power law exponent n of the molecular interaction energy. These findings demonstrate that the multiscale analysis is not only useful but also necessary in the understanding of practical phenomena involving molecular forces. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.