ABSTRACT
Static adhesion, commonly called stiction, remains one of the biggest hurdles preventing a larger number of micro-/nanoelectromechanical systems (M/NEMS) products from entering the mainstream [1-5]. Despite the critical role stiction plays in M/NEMS reliability, a thorough quantitative understanding of this phenomenon is currently lacking. This is due to the fact that the contact mechanics of rough and
rigid surfaces, such as those of polycrystalline silicon (polysilicon), the most widely used structural material in M/NEMS, is a complicated multiscale phenomenon. As a consequence, when two polysilicon surfaces are brought together under a given load, only a few asperities make physical contact [6-8] and surface forces from the near-contact region may contribute significantly to the net adhesion.
