Theoretical study on the influence of residual stress on adhesion-induced instability in MEMS

Adhesion and residual stress play a critical role in the performance and reliability of MEMS. The influence of residual stress on the adhesion-induced instability in MEMS is examined within the framework of thin elastic plate theory. The results show that the adhesion-induced instability will be mitigated if the residual stress exists in certain component of MEMS. Moreover, we find that the influence is significant only when the residual stress is under a proper magnitude (β 20).