Making MEMS more suited for Space: assessing the proton-radiation tolerance of structural materials for microsystems in orbit

Tobias Bandi; João Polido-Gomes; Antonia Neels; Alex Dommann; Herbert R. Shea

doi:10.1117/12.2004705

9 March 2013 Making MEMS more suited for Space: assessing the proton-radiation tolerance of structural materials for microsystems in orbit

Tobias Bandi, João Polido-Gomes, Antonia Neels, Alex Dommann, Herbert R. Shea

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8614, Reliability, Packaging, Testing, and Characterization of MOEMS/MEMS and Nanodevices XII; 86140M (2013) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2004705
Event: SPIE MOEMS-MEMS, 2013, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

We report on the susceptibility of structural MEMS materials to proton radiation damage. Radiation tests at space relevant doses were conducted on MEMS resonators. The two materials examined were single crystal silicon and SU-8, which are both in widespread use in microsystems. The resonance frequency was monitored for measuring minute changes of the Young’s modulus. No radiation-induced changes of the elasticity were observed in the silicon devices up to fluences of 10¹³ cm^-2, corresponding to a total ionizing dose (TID) of over 5.5 MRad for 10 MeV protons. The SU-8 resonators showed a variation of less than ±5.5% at doses of up to 1.4 Mrad (TID). Chemical and structural analyses of the polymer were performed using infrared absorption spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction methods. We discuss possible mechanisms for the observed changes of the elasticity of SU-8.

Citation Download Citation

Tobias Bandi, João Polido-Gomes, Antonia Neels, Alex Dommann, and Herbert R. Shea "Making MEMS more suited for Space: assessing the proton-radiation tolerance of structural materials for microsystems in orbit", Proc. SPIE 8614, Reliability, Packaging, Testing, and Characterization of MOEMS/MEMS and Nanodevices XII, 86140M (9 March 2013); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2004705

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