Adhesion Force Evolution Mediated by Capillary Condensation under Varied Macroscopic Humidity or Interface...

With the structure and device entering the micro/nanoscale, the interaction between microdevices is mainly governed by the interface forces. The capillary adhesion force, as the main component of the interface force, significantly affects the detection accuracy and reliability of the micro/nanomeasurement system. In this paper, an accurate and directly parametrized theoretical model of the capillary force related to relative humidity, as well as a model with respect to surface roughness derived from a sinusoidal characteristic microtopography under the partially infiltrated state of surface microcosmic grooves, is established, which can more accurately describe the capillary adhesion behavior between real workpiece surfaces. A high-sensitivity force measurement system using the probe tip on a micrometer scale is developed to measure capillary forces. The experimental results demonstrate the accuracy of the theoretical models and reveal the relationship between effective distance, rate of change of the capillary force with the relative humidity, or surface roughness. This work will expand the scope of understanding of the interaction effects appearing on micrometer-scale probe tips and lead to many potential applications of the interface interaction in micro- and nanotechnology.