A Microtester for Measuring the Reliability of Microdevices in Controlled Environmental Conditions

Abstract

A miniaturized reliability test system for microdevices with controlled environmental parameters is presented. The system is capable of measuring key electrical parameters of the microdevices while controlling the environmental conditions around the microdevices. The test system is compact and thus can be integrated with standard test equipment for microdevices. By using a feed-forward decoupling algorithm, the presented test system is capable of generating a temperature range of 0–120 °C and a humidity range of 20–90% RH (0–55 °C), within a small footprint and weight. The accuracy for temperature and humidity control is ±0.1 °C and ±1% RH (30 °C), respectively. The functionality of the proposed test system is verified by integrating it with a piezo shaker to test the environmental reliability of an electromagnetic vibration energy harvester. The proposed system can be used as a proof-of-technology platform for characterizing the performance of microdevices with controlled environmental parameters.

Editorial for the Special Issue on Smart Devices and Systems for Vibration Sensing and Energy Harvesting

“…This Special Issue focuses on state-of-the-art vibration sensing and energy harvesting technologies. After being carefully reviewed, 11 articles have been accepted for publication in this Special Issue [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ] that can be divided into three aspects: (i) new materials for vibration energy harvesting applications, (ii) design and fabrication of vibration energy harvesters (VEHs), and (iii) system-level integration and testing of VEHs.…”

“…Apart from the design and fabrication processes, the reliability study on the VEHs is also necessary for the application of vibration energy harvesters. For this purpose, Li et al presented a micro-tester for measuring the reliability of the energy harvester and other MEMS devices in controlled environmental conditions [ 16 ]. The system could generate a temperature range of 0–120 °C and a humidity range of 20–90% RH (0–55 °C) within a small footprint and weight.…”