Reliability of Polycrystalline MEMS: Prediction of the Debugging-Time

The debugging-time for polycrystalline MEMS structural layers is the aim of this paper. A description of the fatigue phenomenon for elementary structure in the case of microactuators is presented. It is obtained by combining elementary in situ test benches of varying dimensions and cyclic actuation; in the same way, the debugging-time is determined according to the design and the structural material. Test benches have been developed allowing performance of bending fatigue tests of polycrystalline structural layers, describing the fatigue phenomenon and obtaining a constant debugging-time for a same polycrystalline layer, whatever the excitation frequency and the beams length.