Inelastic deformation of bilayer microcantilevers with nanoscale coating

Abstract The application and commercialization of microelectromechanical system (MEMS) devices suffer from reliability problems due to the structural inelastic deformation during device operation. Nanocoatings have been demonstrated to be promising solutions for suppressing creep and stress relaxation in bilayer MEMS devices. However, the micro/nano-mechanics within and/or between microcantilevers and coatings are not fully understood, especially when temperature, time, and geometric and material nonlinearities play significant roles in the thermomechanical responses. In this study, the thermomechanical behavior of alumina-coated/uncoated Au/SiN x bilayer microcantilevers was characterized by using thermal cycling and isothermal holding tests. Finite element analysis with power-law creep was used to simulate the mechanical behavior of microcantilevers during isothermal holding. To better understand the stress evolution and the mechanism of inelastic deformation, scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy was employed to explore the grain growth and grain boundary grooving after isothermal holding at various temperatures of 100 °C, 150 °C and 200 °C. The methods and results presented in this paper are useful for the fundamental understanding of many similar bilayer microcantilever-based MEMS devices.