Monolayer surface coatings solve stiction and drift problems in MEMS

This paper reports recent developments in monolayer surface coating process to solve stiction and drift problems in MEMS devices. The chemical strategy for the formation of high density and conformal monolayers is presented, and performance characteristics of these coatings on existing or emerging MEMS products will be discussed. Recent tests on electro-statically actuated micro-mirror devices show that a densely packed monolayer can withstand up to 100 billion cycles of contacts.