Six different source chemicals (organosilanes) were successfully used for deposition of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) onto silicon substrates by a vapor phase process. Five different fluorocarbon coatings and one hydrocarbon coating were deposited. The thermal stability of the coatings was studied in detail with respect to degradation as a function of temperature, and for the fluorocarbon coatings also the degradation rate at 400 • C. For fluorocarbon coatings deposited from FDTS a useful lifetime of approximately 90 min at 400 • C was found allowing the coating to survive high temperature MEMS packaging operations, while fluorocarbon coatings deposited from FOTS, FOMDS, FOTES and FOMMS were less stable. The hydrocarbon coating deposited from OTS degrades already at approximately 200 • C. The thermal stability of the SAM coatings was found to be significantly reduced if aggregations from the deposition process are present on the coatings.

Abstract-We have investigated the anti-stiction performance of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) that were grown in vapor phase from six different organosilane precursors:, and CH 3 (CH 2 ) 17 (CH 2 ) 2 SiCl 3 (OTS). The SAM coatings that were grown on silicon substrates were characterized with respect to static contact angle, surface energy, roughness, nanoscale adhesive force, nanoscale friction force, and thermal stability. The best overall anti-stiction performance was achieved using FDTS as precursor for the SAM growth, but all coatings show good potential for solving in-use stiction problems in microelectromechanical systems devices.[

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This paper provides an overview of a concept for a Smart Skin, for enabling tactile prosthetics that provide for a natural sensation of touch. The solution embeds miniature, ultra-low power, wireless sensors into the silicone coating of the prosthetic. The solution offers advantages in terms of scalability, ability to place the sensors almost anywhere, fault tolerance and potential ease of manufacturing