B.R. de Jong

Sub-nanometer stable precision MEMS clamping mechanism maintaining clamp force unpowered for TEM application

A design is presented for a relatively large force (0.5 mN) high-precision MEMS clamping mechanism. The clamp is a part of a MEMS transmission electron microscope (TEM) sample manipulator, which needs to be fixed unpowered once positioned. The elastic deformation of the clamp suspension has been optimized in order to not influence the TEM sample manipulator position during clamping. The dimensions of the elastic elements have been further optimized for minimal elastic energy storage, minimizing the force needed for deformation and thus reducing the device area. Fabrication involves a back-etch release process, offering great design freedom, resulting in a compact design.

MEMS-based clamp with a passive hold function for precision position retaining of micro manipulators

In this paper the design, modeling and fabrication of a precision MEMS-based clamp with a relatively large clamping force are presented. The purpose of the clamp is to mechanically fix a six-degree-of-freedom (DOF) MEMS-based sample manipulator (Brouwer et al J. Int. Soc. Precis. Eng. Nanotechnol. submitted) once the sample has been positioned in all DOFs. The clamping force is generated by a rotational electrostatic comb-drive actuator and can be latched passively by a parallel plate type electrostatically driven locking device. The clamp design is based on the principles of exact constraint design, resulting in a high actuation compliance (flexibility) combined with a high suspension stiffness. Therefore, a relatively large blocking force of 1.4 mN in relation to the used area of 1.8 mm2 is obtained. The fabrication is based on silicon bulk micromachining technology and combines a high-aspect-ratio deep reactive ion etching (DRIE), conformal deposition of low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) silicon nitride and an anisotropic potassium hydroxide (KOH) backside etching technology. Special attention is given to void reduction of SixNy trench isolation and reduction of heating phenomena during front-side release etching. Guidelines are given for the applied process. Measurements showed that the clamp was able to fix, hold and release a test actuator. The dynamic behavior was in good agreement with the modal analysis.