FABRICATION OF SMOOTH DIAMOND-LIKE CARBON MICROCANTILEVER ARRAYS

Abstract

International Journal of Computational Engineering ScienceVol. 04, No. 03, pp. 671-674 (2003) Poster PapersNo AccessFABRICATION OF SMOOTH DIAMOND-LIKE CARBON MICROCANTILEVER ARRAYSD. SHEEJA, B. K. TAY, L. J. YU, J. MIAO, Y. Q. FU, D. H. C. CHUA, and W. I. MILNED. SHEEJASchool of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Search for more papers by this author , B. K. TAYSchool of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Search for more papers by this author , L. J. YUSchool of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Search for more papers by this author , J. MIAOSchool of Mechanical and Production Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Search for more papers by this author , Y. Q. FUSchool of Mechanical and Production Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Search for more papers by this author , D. H. C. CHUAUniversity of Cambridge, Engineering Dept, England, UK Search for more papers by this author , and W. I. MILNEUniversity of Cambridge, Engineering Dept, England, UK Search for more papers by this author https://doi.org/10.1142/S1465876303002015Cited by:0 PreviousNext AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsRecommend to Library ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail AbstractThe amorphous carbon films prepared by filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) deposition system are superior in nature with very smooth surface morphology, relatively high hardness, favorable tribological behaviour and excellent bio-compatibility. These exceptional qualities make them suitable for many device applications. However, the superior quality films prepared at relatively lower substrate bias such as -80V exhibits high compressive stress and thus limit the thickness of the film. This constraint is overcome by stress reduction, which is achieved by preparing the film in conjunction with high substrate pulse biasing.Free-standing Diamond-like Carbon (DLC) micro-cantiliver arrays were successfully fabricated by a single photolithography step. The relatively thick (~1μm), smooth (Rms ~0.75nm), low stress (<300MPa) DLC films that exhibits low friction (<~0.08) and wear rate (~10-9mm3/N-m), were deposited, on patterned highly doped n-type Si <100> substrates, by the FCVA deposition system in conjunction with high substrate pulse biasing of -5kV, 900Hz and 30μs. The undecutting of the microstructure was carried out by anisotropic wet etching of Si in 40 wrt% KOH at 23°C for 31 hrs. The SEM image of the free-standing DLC micro-cantiliver arrays reveals that the maximum transverse deflection of the cantilever at the free end is quite low. The quantitative measurements of deflections were also carried out using an optical profiler to verify.Keywords:micro-cantilever arraysdiamond-like carbonlow stress filmsMEMS References X. Shiet al., J. of Appl. Phys. 79, 7234 (1996). Google ScholarG. M. Pharret al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 68, 779 (1996). Crossref, Google ScholarD. Sheejaet al., Wear 249, 433 (2001). Crossref, Google Scholar FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Recommended Vol. 04, No. 03 Metrics History Keywordsmicro-cantilever arraysdiamond-like carbonlow stress filmsMEMSPDF download