Abstract
Water plays a significant role in the performance of micro electro mechanical systems (MEMS). A special apparatus was employed to investigate the adhesive friction attributed to water at low coverages, i.e., in the nanometer range, where friction and adhesion are a function of the water layer thickness. In addition, the history of the sample surface also plays a significant role. The friction forces associated with hydrophobic samples are negligibly affected by humidity changes, whereas those of hydrophilic samples show a strong dependence. Sample coverage and the friction force are also influenced by the sample temperature. High forces were measured for high humidities at low sample temperatures, for hydrophilic silicon. In contrast, hydrophobic samples show an increase of the friction force with increasing temperature. Experiments performed under high vacuum demonstrated that decreasing the water layer thickness by desorption decreases the friction force with several sub‐minima and sub‐maxima. The friction signal is accompanied by sudden fluctuations. For submonolayer coverage the friction force starts to increase.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
J.J. Sniegowski, Tribology Issues and Opportunities in MEMS(Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, 1998) pp. 325–340.
C.H. Mastrangelo, Tribology Issues and Opportunities in MEMS(Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, 1998) pp. 341–366.
R. Maboudian and R.T. Howe, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 15 (1997) 1.
L. Andersohn and U. Koehler, Surf. Sci. 284 (1993) 7.
T. Kosugi, H. Ishii and Y. Arita, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 15 (1997) 127.
M. Scherge and J.A. Schaefer, Tribology Issues and Opportunities in MEMS(Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, 1998) pp. 529–538.
N. Ohmae, Micro/Nanotribology and its Application(Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, 1997) pp. 629–645.
N. Ohmae, Tribology Issues and Opportunities in MEMS(Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, 1998) pp. 443–454.
X. Tian and B. Bhushan, J. Phys. D29 (1996) 163.
M. Salmeron, L. Xu, J. Hu and Q. Dai, MRS Bull. 8(1997) 36.
L. Xu, H. Bluhm and M. Salmeron, Surf. Sci. 407 (1998) 251.
F. Stucki, J.A. Schaefer, J.R. Anderson, G.J. Lapeyre and W. Göpel, Solid State Comm. 47 (1983) 795.
J.A. Schaefer, Surf. Sci.178 (1986) 90.
J.A. Schaefer, Surf. Sci. 189/190 (1987) 127.
J.A. Schaefer, Fresenius Z. Analytische Chemie333(1989) 516.
J.A. Schaefer, Appl. Phys. A51 (1990) 305.
J.A. Schaefer, Phys. B170(1991) 45.
J.A. Schaefer, F. Stucki, D.J. Frankel, W. Göpel and G.J. Lapeyre, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 2 (1984) 359.
J.A. Schaefer, J. Anderson and G.J. Lapeyre, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 3(1985) 1443.
J.Q. Broughton, J.A. Schaefer, J.C. Bean and H.H. Farrell, Phys. Rev. B 33 (1986) 6841.
R. Konečný and D.J. Doren, J. Chem. Phys. 106 (1997) 2426.
M.K. Weldon, B.B. Stefanov, K. Raghavachari and Y.L. Chabal, Phys. Rev. Lett. 79 (1997) 2851.
M.C. Flowers, N.B.H. Jonathan, A. Morris and S. Wright, Surf. Sci. 351 (1996) 87.
C. Poncey, F. Rochet, G. Dofour, H. Roulet, F. Sirotti and G. Panaccione, Surf. Sci. 338 (1995) 143.
M.K. Weldon, Y.L. Chabal, D.R. Hamann, S.B. Christman, E.E. Chaban and L.C. Feldman, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 14 (1996) 3095.
R.K. Iler, The Chemistry of Silica(Wiley, New York, 1979).
M. Binggeli and C.M. Mate, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 13 (1995) 1313.
M. Scherge and J.A. Schaefer, Tribol. Lett. 4 (1998) 37.
M. Scherge, H. Büchner, G. Jäger and J.A. Schaefer, J. Optics 29 (1998) 23.
D. Sonntag, Hygrometrie(Akademie, Berlin, 1966).
J.N. Israelachvili and G.E. Adams, Chem. Soc. J. Faraday Trans. I 74 (1978) 975.
J. Van Alsten and S. Granick, Phys. Rev. Lett. 61 (1988) 2570.
B. Bhushan, Handbook or Micro/Nano Tribology(CRC Press, New York, 1995).
H. Yoshizawa, Y.L. Chen and J. Israelachvili, J. Phys. Chem. 97 (1993) 4128.
B.N.J. Persson, Chem. Phys. Lett. 254 (1996) 114.
W. Drost-Hansen, Industrial and Engineering Chem. 61 (1969) 10.
F. Franks, Polywater(MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1981).
P.A. Vesilind, Industrial Wastewater 4 (1996).
I.K. Snook and W. van Megen, J. Chem. Phys. 72 (1980) 2907.
P.A. Thompson and M.O. Robbins, Science 250 (1990) 792.
T. Miyamoto, R. Kaneko and Y. Ando, ASME J. Tribol. 112 (1990).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Scherge, M., Li, X. & Schaefer, J. The effect of water on friction of MEMS. Tribology Letters 6, 215–220 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019119925494
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1019119925494