No abstract

A low-temperature glass-to-glass bonding process is demonstrated that creates uniform channels with a channel depth of 80 nm. The bond strength was characterized as a function of temperature and glass surface treatment. A significant increase in bond strength was found by rinsing the two glass surfaces with a calcium (II) acetate hydrate solution prior to bonding.

A single chip MEMS sensor was designed for detecting the Casimir force using parallel plate geometry. The design methodology is aimed at maintaining the parallelism between the Casimir force boundaries. The Casimir force can be estimated from the measurable capacitance shift produced by the moveable boundary. The signal to noise ratio has been calculated to be in excess of 100 without averaging due to the low thermal noise associated with the chip design and the lOaF resolution of the measurement system. The sensor is testable in air and provides a platform for measuring the Casimir force between different materials.