Reliability of MEMS in Shock Environments: 2000–2020

Abstract

The reliability of MEMS in shock environments is a complex area which involves structural dynamics, fracture mechanics, and system reliability theory etc. With growth in the use of MEMS in automotive, IoT, aerospace and other harsh environments, there is a need for an in-depth understanding of the reliability of MEMS in shock environments. Despite the contributions of many articles that have overviewed the reliability of MEMS panoramically, a review paper that specifically focuses on the reliability research of MEMS in shock environments is, to date, absent. This paper reviews studies which examine the reliability of MEMS in shock environments from 2000 to 2020 in six sub-areas, which are: (i) response model of microstructure, (ii) shock experimental progresses, (iii) shock resistant microstructures, (iv) reliability quantification models of microstructure, (v) electronics-system-level reliability, and (vi) the coupling phenomenon of shock with other factors. This paper fills the gap around overviews of MEMS reliability in shock environments. Through the framework of these six sub-areas, we propose some directions potentially worthy of attention for future research.

Reliability of MEMS inertial devices in mechanical and thermal environments: A review

“…For instance, a large shock may be induced by a cell phone falling from a certain height, a car subjected to an external shock, a flying vehicle landing, or a cannonball launch [ 29 , 30 ]. Some typical shock scenarios are listed in Table 2 [ 31 ].…”

“…MEMS shock experiments require high amplitude and short duration mechanical loads, which bring some challenges to the waveform control and real-time data acquisition techniques. The general impact test equipment mainly includes Machete Hammers and Hopkinson Bar [ 31 ]. The waveforms of the shock signals generated by Machete Hammers and Hopkinson Bar are similar to a half-sinusoidal wave.…”

MEMS Reliability: On-Chip Testing for the Characterization of the Out-of-Plane Polysilicon Strength

“…Due to MEMS geometry and working conditions, reliability issues can be linked to either in-plane or out-of-plane motions. This distinction is important for MEMS structures, since the microfabrication process adopted to build the movable parts provides a columnar morphology to the relevant polysilicon films, see e.g., [ 1 , 2 ]. As movable structures and stoppers are grown together, they basically inherit the same reliability issues in relation to the film morphology.…”

Design of a Biaxial High-G Piezoresistive Accelerometer with a Tension–Compression Structure

“…There are mainly two solutions to this problem. One is to reduce cross-axis interference through a structural optimization design [ 8 , 9 ]. For example, the University of Liverpool in the UK has gradually optimized a disk-shaped accelerometer to obtain a cross-sensitive structure, which reduces the cross-axis sensitivity to 18.1% compared to the circular structure, while the sensitivity on the Z-axis is increased by 76% [ 10 ].…”