A Review on Key Issues and Challenges in Devices Level MEMS Testing

Table 3

MEMS mechanical failures.

Mechanical fracture
Failure	Shock	Overload	Fatigue	Corrosion
Causes	Mechanical interference disorder, excessive loading, and drops	Excessive stress	Structural damage due to cyclic loading	Oxidation, chemical reaction
Stiction
Failure	Capillary forces	Vander Waals forces	Residual stress	Chemical bonding	Electrostatic charging
Causes	Monolayer of moisture or lubricants on the surfaces prompting capillary force	Interaction of atoms or molecules at the surface of close contact	Bending and deformation of structure during the release process	Chemical bond between contact surfaces	Potential difference at two closed surfaces
Wear
Failure	Surface fatigue	Corrosion	Abrasion	Adhesion
Causes	Cyclic loading instead of smooth surfaces	Chemical interaction between two surfaces	Material loss due to sliding of different surfaces	Pull-in interaction between two surfaces during sliding due to surface forces
Creep and fatigue
Failure	Thermal stress	Intrinsic stress	Applied stress
Causes	Overheating	Residual stress	Applied stress