In the MEMS reliability lab, we take perfectly good parts and try to break them. The goal is to ensure that parts will operate as needed when needed. To achieve this goal, we need to gain a fundamental understanding of the failure mechanisms for these tiny devices. Our strategy is to run lots of parts in parallel and gather statistics on mechanical failures. Our first life test has a lone surviving Sandia microengine that has racked up over 4.5 billion revolutions.
SHiMMeR is a flexible, modular system capable of testing a wide variety of device types.
This highly automated system was designed to perform endurance and other tests on microactuators. Currently, we can test up to 256 Sandia microengines in parallel to gather large amounts of data. To get these tiny engines to move, we use arbitrary waveform generators and amplifiers to supply the drive signals. These drive signals are distributed to packaged MEMS devices. Since MEMS actuators are mechanical in nature, we use optical methods to characterize their motion through transparent covers in the packages.