Inelastic Contact Behavior of Crystalline Asperities in rf MEMS Devices

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), particularly those with radio frequency (rf) applications, have demonstrated significantly better performance over current electromechanical and solid-state technologies. Surface roughness and asperity microcontacts are critical factors that can affect contact behavior at scales ranging from the nano to the micro in MEMS devices. Recent investigations at the continuum level have underscored the importance of microstructural effects on the inelastic behavior of asperity microcontacts. Hence, a microstructurally based approach that accounts for the inhomogeneous deformation of the asperity microcontacts under cyclic loading and that is directly related to asperity physical scales and anisotropies can provide a detailed understanding of the deformation mechanisms associated with asperity microcontacts so that guidelines can be incorporated in the design and fabrication process to effectively size critical components and forces for significantly improved device durability and performance. A physically based microstructural representation of fcc crystalline materials that couples a multiple-slip crystal plasticity formulation to dislocation densities is used in a specialized finite-element modeling framework. The asperity model and the loading conditions are based on realistic service conditions consistent with rf MEMS with metallic normal contacts. The evolving microstructure, stress fields, contact width, hardness, residual effects, and the localized phenomena that can contribute to failure initiation and evolution in the flattening of single crystal gold asperity microcontacts are characterized for a loading-unloading cycle. It is shown that the nonuniform loading conditions due to asperity geometry and contact loading and the size effects due to asperity dimensions result in significant contribution of the geometrically necessary dislocation densities to stress, deformation, and microstructural evolution of crystalline asperities. This is not captured in modeling efforts based on von Mises continuum plasticity formulations. Residual strains and stresses are shown to develop during the cyclic loading. Localized tensile stress regions are shown to develop due to stress reversal and strain hardening during both loading and unloading regimes. Hardness predictions also indicate that nano-indentation hardness values of the contact material can overestimate the contact force in cases, where a rigid flat surface is pressed on a surface roughness asperity.