Effect of storage life and drive signals on the reliability of the Sandia Microengine

Chad B. O'Neal; Ajay P. Malshe; William P. Eaton

doi:10.1117/12.395701

10 August 2000 Effect of storage life and drive signals on the reliability of the Sandia Microengine

Chad B. O'Neal, Ajay P. Malshe, William P. Eaton

Proceedings Volume 4180, MEMS Reliability for Critical Applications; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.395701
Event: Micromachining and Microfabrication, 2000, Santa Clara, CA, United States

Abstract

In this study, the parameters affecting operational and nonoperational reliability of the Sandia Microengine were investigated. It was found that using a non-outgassing die attach material greatly improves storage life. The minimum force required to drive the microengines initially decreased from a much higher voltage to settle in at around 1250 V² for all devices tested. Drive signal parameters were optimzed for individual engines and the resulting device lifetimes were found to be marginally better that when average values were used (1.2x10⁶ cycles compared to 1.0x10⁶ cycles). There was no correlation between the value of the lumped parameter kr/a and lifetime found, however the longest living engines used a kr/a of around 1000 V². ues. Optimized drive signal lifetimes were found to be a factor of two higher than when sinewave drive signals were used (5x10⁵ compared to 1.2x10⁶),indicating the advantage of using optimizzed drive signals, but not the two order of magnitude in lifetime that was desired.

Citation Download Citation

Chad B. O'Neal, Ajay P. Malshe, and William P. Eaton "Effect of storage life and drive signals on the reliability of the Sandia Microengine", Proc. SPIE 4180, MEMS Reliability for Critical Applications, (10 August 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.395701

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