Experimental evaluation and numerical modeling of adhesion phenomena in polysilicon MEMS

Adhesion phenomena in poly-silicon Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) are here studied by means of experimental characterization and numerical simulation. In the experimental part, the adhesion energy is measured on-chip by means of on-purpose designed and fabricated devices; moreover, the surface roughness is characterized through the Atomic Force Microscope. For the numerical part, a specific method is developed to simulate the process of adhesion based on a numerical description of surface roughness, on simplified modeling of adhesion forces due to van der Waals and capillary attraction and on non-linear constitutive modeling for polysilicon surfaces.