Effects of Relative Humidity and Actuation Voltage on MEMS Reliability

Author

Hon, M. ; DelRio, F.W. ; Carraro, C. ; Maboudian, R.

Author_Institution

Univ. of California at Berkeley, Berkeley

fYear

2007

fDate

10-14 June 2007

Firstpage

367

Lastpage

370

Abstract

Polycrystalline silicon (polysilicon) microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) commonly operate under high electric fields. When combined with humidity from the environment, corrosion becomes a critical reliability issue. Oxidation at the anode is frequently observed and reported. In this paper, we provide the first report of damage occurring at the cathode in polysilicon MEMS under high relative humidity. This unusual phenomenon is determined to be electrochemical and chemical in nature. The accelerating factors leading to cathodic dissolution are discussed and suggestions to prevent such damage are presented.

Keywords

electrochemical electrodes; humidity; micromechanical devices; silicon; MEMS reliability; Oxidation; accelerating factors; actuation voltage effects; anode; cathodic dissolution; microelectromechanical systems; relative humidity effects; Anodes; Cathodes; Chemicals; Corrosion; Humidity; Microelectromechanical systems; Micromechanical devices; Oxidation; Silicon; Voltage; MEMS; anodic oxidation; cathodic polarization; corrosion; reliability; silicon;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Conference, 2007. TRANSDUCERS 2007. International

Conference_Location

Lyon

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0842-3

Electronic_ISBN

1-4244-0842-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SENSOR.2007.4300144

Filename

4300144