MAE281: Microsciences

Fall 2016: Prof. CJ Kim

Microscale I:
Nature and Size; Proportions and Size

MAE281: Microsciences

Fall 2016: Prof. CJ Kim

The Issue of Being in Microscale

Feel the microscale..
A tropical frog
(the smallest vertebrate)

The
foreleg
of flea

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MAE281: Microsciences

Fall 2016: Prof. CJ Kim

Scale of Natural and Man-Made Objects

Astronomy
10+2 m

Bridge; Commercial jet

Elephant

10+1 m

House

Human

10 m

Automobile

Mouse

10-1 m

Cell phone; Mouse

Ant

10-2 m

Small mechanical parts

Flea

10-3 m

Small watch parts

Plant cell

10-4 m

Microbeam length

Animal cell

10-5 m

Microbeam width

Bacteria

10-6 m

Thin-film thickness

Virus

10-7 m

Conventional

MEMS

Nano

Nuclear physics
3/22

MAE281: Microsciences

Fall 2016: Prof. CJ Kim

WHAT'S GOING DOWN?

Where are we? Where are they?
Elephants are big. Ants are small?
elephant: 101 m
human: 100 m
mouse: 10-1 m
ant: 10-2 m
microbes: 10-7-10-3 m
The size range of living things.
The size range of cells.
Where are micromachines?

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MAE281: Microsciences

Fall 2016: Prof. CJ Kim

Where is 1 micron?

5/22

MAE281: Microsciences

Fall 2016: Prof. CJ Kim

How would things behave in microscale?

First, lets look at the millimeter world of ants.

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MAE281: Microsciences

Fall 2016: Prof. CJ Kim

Ants appear to be very strong.

7/22

MAE281: Microsciences

Fall 2016: Prof. CJ Kim

How would things behave in ants world?

e.g.

Ants

vs.

Human

Lift 10 times its own weight.

Do not injure falling.
Some can fly.

(Barely own weight)

(Easily injure)
(We wish)

(Even if they were smart.....)

(Dead near fire)
(Dry cleans.)

Use tools.
We cook.
Do take showers.

Should ants
be feared?

Empire of the Ants (1977)

http://www.imdb.com/
video/hulu/vi2174681113
8/22

MAE281: Microsciences

Fall 2016: Prof. CJ Kim

Problem with proportional miniaturization:

e.g.: Microscopic automobiles, books?
We don't have good intuition of microscale physics. Our
common sense, rules of thumb in macro world, does not
apply well in micro world.
What can we do?
Always valid is: science
Valid in many cases for MEMS are:
classical physics, continuum mechanics
Dimensional analysis (extended from classical physics)
can reveal "how things behave" in microscopic world w/o
full scale mathematical analysis. In a sense, "Physics
made easy".
9/22

MAE281: Microsciences

Fall 2016: Prof. CJ Kim

Scaling
Different physical quantities (force, volume, etc.)
tend to scale differently with dimension L.
Assume isometric scaling
(i.e., isometry, geometric similarity)
Length
Area
Volume

L
A L2
V L3

Surface force

L1 (size)
(surface tension F/L or surface energy U/A)
Heat transfer
Diffusion
Muscle strength
Bone strength

L2 (area)

Mass

L3 (volume)

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MAE281: Microsciences

Fall 2016: Prof. CJ Kim

Scaling example 1: Weight lifting

Observed: Different-sized individuals of the same species generally
keep a reasonably faithful proportion Isometry.
Assumption: Muscle stress is invariant of body size
( = F/A = constant)
Let's predict the lifting ability of a person based on weight:
Wlift (Wbody)c?
(But, compare among those who are very fit.)
Wbody L3
Wlift A L2
Thus:

Wlift (Wbody) 2/3

World weight-lifting records agree well!

11/22

MAE281: Microsciences

Fall 2016: Prof. CJ Kim

A weight lifter in the split snatch position.

World weight-lifting records,

represented by log WT, plotted against
log body weight. Here, WT is the total
weight lifted in three lifts: the press, the
snatch, and the clean-and-jerk. The
numbers beside each point indicate the
body weight class, given in pounds.

Lietzke, Science '56

(On Size and Life by McMahon and Bonner)

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MAE281: Microsciences

Fall 2016: Prof. CJ Kim

Scaling example 2: Common nails produced

Observed: For living things of greatly different sizes (different
species), proportions change with size Allometry.
Let's explain the non-isometry of the common nails produce.
(Compare nails of the same material, i.e., = constant.)
d Lc?
One should hammer strong enough to overcome the friction but
not too strong to make the nail buckle: Pmin < F < Pcrit
Buckling consideration:
Pcrit = n2EI/L2 (n = 1/4 for fix-free, 1 for pin-pin, 2 for pin-fix, 4 for fix-fix)
Critical load Pcrit EI /L2, where I = moment of inertia
Since I d4, Pcrit d4/L2
Friction consideration:
Minimum load Pmin d
Pcrit = Pmin d4/L2 d or d L2/3
The actual data with common nails agree.
13/22

MAE281: Microsciences

Fall 2016: Prof. CJ Kim

Common nails arranged by size from 60

penny (6 inches) to 2 penny (1 inch).
Nail diameter vs. nail length on a log-log plot, showing
the allometric formula d = 0.07L2/3. A broken line of slope
1.0, representing strict isometry, is also shown.

(On Size and Life by McMahon and Bonner)

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MAE281: Microsciences

Fall 2016: Prof. CJ Kim

Why dimensional analysis is important for MEMS?

To design or to communicate with others, we blow up the scale of
the microdevices linearly: isometry.
Intuition tends to perceive the microscale object as geometrically
similar counterparts of those in our world.
Hinders design in conceptual level.
As scale reduces, certain physical quantities become significant or
negligible, compared with other quantities.

15/22

MAE281: Microsciences

Fall 2016: Prof. CJ Kim

Willard Wigan's Girl

Walking
Miniature
Artsan Eyelash

http://www.snopes.com/photos/arts/microscopic.asp

What do you think when you see this picture?

MAE281: Microsciences

Fall 2016: Prof. CJ Kim

Inertia Force
Deformation by own inertia force
Stress W/A L3/L2 = L
Strain (relative deformation) = Stress/E
L/(material property) size
Strain by inertia force decreases as size decreases
Bending by own weight
Relative transverse deformation
d/L = (3/2)(g/E)(L/H)2L
(material properties)(aspect ratio)L size

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MAE281: Microsciences

Fall 2016: Prof. CJ Kim

Example for inertia force

Compare beams a and b with geometric similarity but with different
absolute size:

g
(a) 56" long, 1/2" diameter
vs. (b) 7" long, 1/16" diameter
(same material, same aspect ratio, i.e., isometry)
Size difference: 8X
Relative deformation Absolute size
(da/La)/ (db/Lb) = {(3/2)(g/E)(L/H)2L}a / {{(3/2)(g/E)(L/H)2L}b
= (La/Lb)
The relative deformation of a 300 m-long beam (typical in MEMS)
would be ~1/5000 of the above 56-long beam.
In microscale, structures appear stiffer against inertia forces.
(CJ Kim, PhD dissertation, 1991)
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MAE281: Microsciences

Fall 2016: Prof. CJ Kim

Relative Importance of
Forces in Different Scale
weight

Pelican is fishing

adhesion

Force
(unitless)

10-6 10-5 10-4 10-3 10-2 10-1 100 101

L (m)

Scaling of weight and

molecular adhesion, based
on empirical observation

The world of ants scale

(from movie Antz)

(On Size and Life by McMahon and Bonner)

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MAE281: Microsciences

Fall 2016: Prof. CJ Kim

Are ants strong or weak?

National Geographic Channel (aired first in 2003)

20/22

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MAE281: Microsciences

Fall 2016: Prof. CJ Kim

Historically, surface tension was noticed as a major issue in the

field of MEMS as a main problem against fabricating microscale
structures.

Surface Micromachining
Substrate

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MAE281: Microsciences

Fall 2016: Prof. CJ Kim

Stiction Problem in MEMS

Microstructure (e.g. polysilicon)

Etchant
(e.g.
HF)
Rinse

Sacrificial layer (e.g. PSG)

The image cannot be displayed. Your computer may not have enough memory to open
the image, or the image may have been corrupted. Restart your computer, and then
open the file again. If the red x still appears, you may have to delete the image and then
insert it again.

Substrate
Substrate

liquid
Rinse
liquid
drop

Capillary force greater than structural stiffness!!

Many examples of stiction in publication
Many examples of stiction in nature
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