One of the final steps in fabricating microelectromechanical devices often involves a liquid etch release process. Capillary forces during the liquid evaporation stage after the wet etch process can pull two surfaces together resulting in adhesion of suspended microstructures to the supporting substrate. This release related adhesion can greatly reduce yields. In this report, a wet etch release method that uses polystyrene microspheres in the final rinse liquid is investigated. The polystyrene microspheres act as physical barriers between the substrate and suspended microstructures during the final liquid evaporation phase. A plasma ashing process is utilized to completely remove the polystyrene microspheres from the microstructure surfaces. Using this process, release yields > 90% were achieved. It is found that the surface roughness of gold surfaces increases while that of the silicon is reduced due to a thin oxide that grows on the silicon surface during the plasma process.

The thesis studied quantized conductance in nanocontacts formed between two thin gold wires with one of the wires coated by alkainthiol self assembly monolayers (SAM), by using the cross-wire junction. Using the Lorenz force as the driving force, we can bring the two wires in contact in a controlled manner. We observed conductance with steps of 2e2 / h. The conductance plateaus last several seconds. The stability of the junction is attributed to the fact that the coating of SAM improves the stability and capability of the formed contact.