Precisely Controlling Assembly Angle of Surface Tension Powered Self-Assembly for MEMS Microstructures

How to integrate the microstructures which are made by various micro manufacturing methods into a functional system or device is the key to the application of MEMS technology. Solder self-assembly is based on surface tension with the properties of “self-organization”, low cost, batch processes and the compatibility with surface mount technology, which makes it be a challenging alternate technique. Solder self-assembly is based on the principle of surface energy minimization of molten solder material. During the process of minimizing the surface energy, surface tension can pull the horizontal hinged or hingeless plate up to a particular angle to achieve the minimal system energy. Finite element method is applied in this paper. MEMS self-assembly three-dimensional dynamic simulation model is developed by SURFACE EVOLVER. First, the model in this paper dynamically simulate the angle change of hinged plate during the process of evolvement of solder; second, the comparisons among the results from the current model and those from analytical two-dimensional model and three-dimensional static model are carried out; third, through Design of Experiments (DoE) with the application of the current model, the influences of design parameters such as pad size, pad geometry, and solder paste volume to the assembly angle are compared and discussed. Through changing the pad size, pad geometry and solder paste volume in SURFACE EVOLVER model, the corresponding final assembly angel from dynamic three-dimensional models are obtained. The relationship between design parameters to the assembly angle is concluded by the application of statistical analyses. The final angle can be controlled more effectively through synthetically optimize these parameters. It can provide effective guidance to the practical manufacturing of MEMS. Further research should focuses on the MEMS self-assembly experiment to intensively understand the relationship between the pad sizes, pad position, solder paste volume, hinge position, lock position and intermetallic compounds and the final assembly angle.