3D deformation analysis of flow and gas sensors membranes for reliability assessment

Micromachined microsensors for gas or flow detection based on physical behaviour of a special layer of a membrane have to fulfil high quality and reliability requirements especially in safety or security applications. For the reliability assessment a combination of simulative and experimental methods is usually carried out for the fully understanding of the thermo-mechanical behaviour. Due to the micromachining involved in the production of the sensor components the thermo-mechanical response of the layers are strongly dependent on process parameters. Therefore experimental methods for the 3D deformation detection are essential. In this paper experimental methods such as profilometry and scanning probe microscopy are tested for the evaluation of residual stresses and thermomechanical induced stress/strain fields.