Influence of the elasto-plastic adhesive contact on Micro-Switches

Undesirable stiction, which results from contact between surfaces, is a major failure mode in micro,electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). In previous works, a statistical rough surfaces interaction,model, based on Maugis and Kim formulations has been presented to estimate the adhesive forces in MEMS switches. In this model, only elastic adhesive contact has been considered. However, during the impact between rough surfaces, at pull-in process for example, plastic deformations of the rough surfaces cannot be always neglected especially for the MEMS with metallic contact surfaces.
In the present work, a new micro-model predicting the adhesive-contact force on a single elasticplastic asperity interacting with a rigid plane is presented. This model will be used later on for the interaction between two elastic-plastic rough surfaces. The MEMS devices studied here are assumed to work in a dry environment. In these operating conditions only the Van der Waals forces have to be considered for adhesion.