The model will incorporate the roughness of the contacting surfaces, intermolecular forces, and possibly electrostatic forces. This involves understanding how failures that affect MEMS devices behave at both operating and extreme, i.e., high temperature, conditions. Accelerated testing protocols can be developed once the relationship between the failure times at standard and extreme conditions are known. Also, the results of this investigation will provide further insight into MEMS failures and suggest future directions for research into the prevention of these failures. This project experimentally and analytically studies the failure of MEMS structures in order to establish accelerated testing procedures.
Capillary force allows small, flat, solid plates to float on liquids.
The density of the plate material is higher than liquid. This project investigates the mechanisms of floatation and the force interaction between two small floating bodies. The project aims to identify the parameter space in which a MEMS probe can be used to manipulate an object in liquid without inundating the corresponding MEMS devices. The choice of refrigerant, its effects on heat exchanger design, expansion device, and controls are studied. The focus this year is on design and building of an experimental facility capable of precise measurement of extremely low mass flow and heat transfer rates in the exchangers and other components.