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Experimental Determination of the Q‐factors of Microcantilevers Coated With Thin Metal Films
Author(s) -
Klempner A. R.,
Marinis R. T.,
Hefti P.,
Pryputniewicz R. J.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
strain
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.477
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1475-1305
pISSN - 0039-2103
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-1305.2009.00628.x
Subject(s) - microscale chemistry , materials science , aluminium , microelectromechanical systems , q factor , silicon , cantilever , oscillation (cell signaling) , electrical conductor , thin film , composite material , optoelectronics , metal , ring (chemistry) , nanotechnology , resonator , metallurgy , chemistry , mathematics education , mathematics , organic chemistry , biology , genetics
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are typically fabricated out of materials that are mechanically sound at the microscale, but can be relatively poor electrical conductors. For this reason, areas of MEMS can be coated with various thin metal films to provide electrical pathways. These films, however, may drastically alter mechanical properties of the device. In this paper we investigate how metallization of microcantilevers affects the quality factors, (Q). Using two sets of silicon microcantilevers that are coated with aluminium films from 5 nm to 30 nm thick, on one side and two sides, respectively, the Q‐factors are experimentally determined using the ring‐down method. The ring‐down method entails mechanically exciting the microcantilevers at their fundamental resonance frequency, abruptly stopping the excitation, and then measuring the decay of oscillation amplitude as a function of time. From this ring‐down curve, the Q‐factor of each microcantilever can be determined. Results show that the greater the thickness of the aluminium film, the lower the Q‐factor will be. We also show a significant temperature dependency of the Q‐factor of aluminium coated microcantilevers.