ADHESION RELEASE AND YIELD ENHANCEMENT OF MICROSTRUCTURES USING PULSED LORENTZ FORCES

Adhesion of microstructures is an important failure mechanism in surfa ce-micromachined devices. In this paper, a simple and effective method for releasing pinned microstructures is presented, The method uses th e Lorentz force due to the interaction of a current with an external m agnetic field to generate an upward force that frees the microstructur es, The static and transient behavior of beams under the Lorentz force is examined. Critical values of current and pulse durations needed to release the microstructures are determined and verified with experime ntal data, Using this technique, previously pinned beams and rectangul ar plates have been released, The release technique is suitable for ma ss production environments since it is easily applied during the elect rical testing of the device, thereby increasing the manufacturing yiel d. [141]