Novel post-process gap reduction technology of high aspect ratio microstructures utilizing micro welding

This paper presents a novel post-process gap reduction technology of high aspect ratio microstructures. The gap reduction procedure uses the well known electrostatic deflection of a movable microstructure. In contrast to other solutions, micro welding is utilized to create the final, permanent locking. The fabrication technology, the functional principle of the gap reduction mechanism and the experimental set-up is presented. As a result the initial gap width between vertical comb electrodes was decreased from 4500 nm to 385 nm, leading to a final aspect ratio of 150.