Hydrophilic and hydrophobic phenomena on silicon substrate for MEMS

Daiki Kamiya; Mikio Horie

doi:10.1117/12.368454

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8 October 1999 Hydrophilic and hydrophobic phenomena on silicon substrate for MEMS

Daiki Kamiya, Mikio Horie

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Proceedings Volume 3893, Design, Characterization, and Packaging for MEMS and Microelectronics; (1999) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.368454
Event: Asia Pacific Symposium on Microelectronics and MEMS, 1999, Gold Coast, Australia

Abstract

In this study, we found electrochemical wetting on a surface of a silicon substrate by direct voltage. The surfaces of silicon substrates do not have good wettability in usual condition. We observed here that a wetting area between a silicon substrate and a ultrapure water drop on the silicon surface expanded and a contact angel became almost zero degrees when direct voltage was impressed. Voltages inducing wetting are various and are dependent on crystal directions of substrate surfaces, voltage directions, and so on. However, this phenomenon is irreversible for ultrapure water. Next, experiments using some solutions containing several kinds of ions instead of ultrapure water were conducted. In general, drops of the solutions spread by lower voltage than drops of ultrapure water. When a cathode is contacted to a substrate an anode is immersed in a drop of sodium sulfate solution, the spread of the drop occurs. Then, shrinkage is observed when the reverse voltage is applied. Surface tension is a dominant and important force to micro size structures. At last, we show some types of micro actuator using surface tension controlled electrically in order to apply these phenomena to MEMS.

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Daiki Kamiya and Mikio Horie "Hydrophilic and hydrophobic phenomena on silicon substrate for MEMS", Proc. SPIE 3893, Design, Characterization, and Packaging for MEMS and Microelectronics, (8 October 1999); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.368454

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