Invited Paper VT-WeA4
Development of MEMS for Space Applications

Wednesday, October 17, 2007, 2:40 pm, Room 618

Space flight missions have critical requirements such as low mass, low power, and high reliability. The technology of Micro-Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS) naturally has many properties that address these space flight requirements. MEMS devices are built using the same techniques that have been developed by the semiconductor industry so they share the same benefits that we have come to expect from modern electronics, i.e., reduced size, low mass, low cost, etc. While there has been significant research on how MEMS technology operates in the more “normal” environments encountered for consumer electronics and biological application, for the benefits of MEMS technology to be fully realized for space applications their operation in a vacuum needs to be understood. The relative importance of different physical mechanisms shifts when going from a macro-scale world to that of the micron scale. For example, surface tension and stiction are easily dealt with on the macro scale but become significant problems on the MEMS scale. We will discuss the challenges and opportunities that are present for MEMS technology when used in space or any vacuum environment. For example, MEMS oscillators operating in vacuum have Q-values many orders of magnitude larger than when operated at atmospheric pressures.¹ We will present results from our testing of MEMS devices in a vacuum environment and discuss the implications for further space instrumentation development.

¹ McComas et al., "Space applications of microelectromechancial systems: Southwest Research Institute vacuum microprobe facility and initial vacuum test results", Rev. Sci. Inst., Vol 74, 2003.