| AVS 55th International Symposium & Exhibition | |
| MEMS and NEMS | Tuesday Sessions |
| Session MN-TuM |
| Session: | Materials Processing and Characterization for MEMS/NEMS |
| Presenter: | F. Liu, University of California at Berkeley |
| Authors: | F. Liu, University of California at Berkeley C.S. Roper, University of California at Berkeley C. Carraro, University of California at Berkeley R. Maboudian, University of California at Berkeley |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
The effects of relative humidity and actuation voltage in MEMS have been investigated using polysilicon electrodes. The results indicate occurrence of anodic oxidation under positive bias and absence of cathodic protection under negative bias that leads to the precipitation of dissolved species. We will also report on the effect of electrode geometry and surface termination. Our results show that corrosion can be the dominant failure mechanism of polysilicon MEMS when driven by large electrostatic voltages in humid environments.