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Morphological, Electrical, and Chemical Changes in Cyclically Contacting Polycrystalline Silicon Surfaces Coated with Perfluoroalkylsilane Self-Assembled Monolayer

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Abstract

The evolution of morphology, electrical properties, and chemical composition has been studied in cyclically contacting polycrystalline silicon (polysilicon) surfaces coated with perfluoroalkylsilane self-assembled monolayer (SAM). The microinstrument used is a MEMS cantilever that is repeatedly actuated out-of-plane to impact a landing pad and is then moved in-plane to enable nondestructive in situ inspection of the impacted area. Analyses show that a device with a monolayer coating exhibits signs of surface degradation after a much higher number of cycles than its uncoated counterpart. A sharp increase in contact resistance between the cantilever and landing pad is observed at ~10 billion cycles for a coated device, versus ~25 million cycles for an uncoated device. Likewise, the onset of grain fracture in the landing pad occurs at ~25 billion cycles for the SAM-coated device, versus ~3 billion cycles for its uncoated counterpart. The effectiveness of the monolayer coating diminishes after more than 100 billion contact cycles as the SAM layer is removed, and the polysilicon substrate becomes susceptible to adhesive wear.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Nathan Klejwa of Stanford University for the assistance in the AES analysis conducted at Stanford Nanocharacterization Laboratory. This work was supported in part by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) N/MEMS S&T Fundamentals program under grant no. N66001-10-1-4004 issued by the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific (SPAWAR).

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Author notes

  1. Ian Laboriante

    Present address: Micron Technology, Boise, ID, 83707, USA

  2. Fang Liu

    Present address: Analog Devices Inc, Wilmington, MA, 01801, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Ian Laboriante, Maxwell Fisch, Amir Payamipour, Fang Liu, Carlo Carraro & Roya Maboudian

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  1. Ian Laboriante
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  2. Maxwell Fisch
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  3. Amir Payamipour
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  5. Carlo Carraro
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  6. Roya Maboudian
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Correspondence to Roya Maboudian.

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Laboriante, I., Fisch, M., Payamipour, A. et al. Morphological, Electrical, and Chemical Changes in Cyclically Contacting Polycrystalline Silicon Surfaces Coated with Perfluoroalkylsilane Self-Assembled Monolayer. Tribol Lett 44, 13–17 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11249-011-9821-7

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