Design of Surface Micro-structures for Friction Control in Micro-systems Applications

In this work, the effectiveness of controlling the frictional force at the micro-scale using well structured surface micro-grooves is demonstrated. Such micro-structured surfaces are designed to eliminate wear particles or contaminants from the sliding interface, thereby, minimizing the effect of surface plowing. Also, the surfaces are designed to minimize the effective area of contact, which is found to have a profound effect on the magnitude of the surface force for micro-systems. Experimental evidence of stiction/friction reduction even at high relative humidity by using such micro-structured surfaces are provided in this work. The results of this work can be utilized in optimization of tribological surface design for micro-systems applications.