Hello Yilei,

The answer is, it depends.  Some cantilever structures will be stiff enough
to withstand DI water rinse and even a spin-dry cycle.  Others, like very
long (x), tall (z), thin (y) cantilevers in silicon material will tend to
bend, and touch things that you do not want them to touch.  In those cases,
you may find you need to use critical-point drying with a methanol rinse
instead of water, to avoid stiction and cantilever damage due to bending.

Essentially, you should consider the spring constant of your cantilevers and
compare the magnitude of force required to move your cantilevers versus the
force of water fluid flow, which must be huge at the micro-level.  Short,
stiff cantilevers may be able to survive water and N2 drying, but flimsy
cantilevers will most certainly be destroyed.

Regards,
Justin

Justin C. Borski
MEMS Program Manager
Advanced MicroSensors Inc.
jborski@advancedmicrosensors.com
www.advancedmicrosensors.com



-----Original Message-----
From: Yilei Zhang [mailto:ylzhang@iastate.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 8:24 PM
To: mems-talk@memsnet.org
Subject: [mems-talk] how to rinse small structure?


Hello all:
Can I use DI water+N2 in a tank to rinse wafer with small structures? Will
it
damage the structure, for example, will the cantilevers break during the
rinse? thanks.


Regards,
Yilei Zhang










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