Measurement of Large Forces and Deflections in Microstructures

TL;DR

This paper presents a measurement system designed to assess forces and deflections in MEMS microstructures, providing insights into their structural properties through experimental analysis of a cantilever accelerometer.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel stylus-based measurement system for microstructures, including system design, characterization, and application to a cantilever accelerometer.

Findings

Successful measurement of force/deflection in microstructures

Analysis of force/deflection curve shapes

Investigation of stylus placement accuracy and destructive testing

Abstract

Properties of typical MEMS materials have been widely investigated. Mechanical properties of MEMS structures depend not only on the bulk material properties, but also structural factors. A measurement system has been made to measure force/deflection on microstructures to examine some of the structural properties. This is a stylus setup integrated with a load cell and a linear actuator. First, the requirements for the measurement system were established. Then the system was built up and characterized. We have successfully made measurements on a typical micromechanical structure, a cantilever accelerometer design. The stylus placement accuracy, the spring constant along the proof mass, analysis of the force/deflection curve shape and destructive tests on the cantilever have been investigated in our experiment and will be presented in this paper.