Silver, copper and aluminium coatings for micro-material handling operations

Abstract

Micro-material handling has challenges accompanying it because of adhesive forces, which make the picking and placing of micro-parts difficult. The adhesive forces hinder the picking of a micro-part, and once picked, they pose even a greater challenge when attempts to release a micro-part are made. Van der Waals forces are part of the adhesive forces and are always present between interacting surfaces in a micro-material handling operation. However, Van der Waals forces can profitably be manipulated in a micro-material handling operation. The paper reveals how the Van der Waals forces can be advantageously used in micro-material handling operations involving silver, copper and aluminium coatings of rms surface roughness values ranging from 0.5 nm to 2.72 nm, which are produced by the electron beam evaporation (e-beam) method. These were found to exert Van der Waals forces ranging from 17 nN to 314 nN, which can be used for reliable micro-material handling operations.

Keywords

• silver
• copper
• aluminium
• MICRO-MATERIAL HANDLING OPERATIONS