Research development of measuring methods on the tribology characters for movable MEMS devices: a review

Micro electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) offers great promise for system integration of sensors, actuators and signal processing. However, to the movable MEMS devices, there have always been major obstacles to their realization and reliability in the past-tribology problems. Because of the size effect, the conventional frictional law is no longer feasible to MEMS devices. It is vital to do research on micro-tribology and rebuild a micro-tribology theory in which size effect must be concerned. At the same time, in order to obtain reliable experimental data to support the theory, a feasible measuring method is also necessary. This paper describes two kinds of measuring methods to realize this purpose-on-chip measuring method and off-chip measuring method. Advantages, disadvantages, research status and the application prospect of each kind of methods are all introduced. Finally, development prospect of measuring methods is mentioned.