Lecture

2: Scaling Eects

Ian Foulds, PhD
Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)

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Scaling Laws
Scaling laws can be used to answer the
quesGon of Why go small? They allow us to
determine whether physical phenomena will
scale more favorably or will scale poorly.
Because the natural laws scale dierently your
natural intuiGon will fail you in microsystems
design and you need to develop a microscale-
intuiGon.

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Scaling Laws
Generally, smaller things are less aected by
volume dependent phenomena such as mass
and inerGa, and are more aected by surface
area dependent phenomena such as contact
forces or heat transfer.
FricGon > InerGa
Heat DissipaGon > Heat Storage
ElectrostaGc Force > MagneGc Force

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Scaling
volume/surface area raGo
Example 1: A cube of material:
a
a

Surface Area for a cube = 6a2

Volume for a cube = a3
As we scale down, the value for volume will
decrease more rapidly than the value for surface
area. In other words, the volume/surface area
raGo will decrease.

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Scaling
volume/surface area raGo
Assume a = 10 units
For a = 10:
S.A. (surface area)
V (volume)
!

= 10"10" 6 = 600units2
= 10"10"10 = 1000units3

Therefore, the raGo

of
!

volume
V 1000 10
=
=
=
surface _ area S.A. 600 6

Assume a = 1 unit:
S.A. (surface area) !
V (volume)

= 1"1" 6 = 6units2
= 1"1"1 = 1units3

!
Therefore, the raGo
!

V
1
=
S.A. 6

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Scaling
volume/surface area raGo
Assume a = 0.1 unit:
S.A. (surface area)
V (volume)
!

Therefore, the raGo

!

= 0.1" 0.1" 6 = 0.06units2

= 0.1" 0.1" 0.1 = 0.001units3

V
1
=
S.A. 60

!
What is the signicance
of this?

V
a"a"a a
=
=
S.A. a " a " 6 6

" a#

Consider heat storage vs. heat dissipaGon.

!
heat storage is proporGonal to volume
!
heat dissipaGon is proporGonal to surface
area

V
#
S.A.

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Scaling
volume/surface area raGo
-Given three cubes of dierent sizes
a = 10, 1 and 0.1, with all other properGes the same,
consider the rate of cooling.

-Assume that all cubes start at the same high temperature,
and are allowed to cool to the same low temperature.
-The total heat contained in the smallest cube is 1,000,000
Gmes less than the large cube.
-The total surface area (heat dissipaGon area) of the smallest
cube is only 10,000 Gmes less than the large cube.
-Therefore, there is 100 Gmes more heat dissipaGon, per unit
volume, in the smallest cube. In other words, it will cool at a
much faster rate, even though all other condiGons are the
same for all cubes.

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Scaling - Stress
Example 2: Stress in a rod connected to a
mass experiencing a constant acceleraGon.
How is the stress related to the scale?
a - acceleraGon

r - radius

Mass

h
l

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a - acceleraGon

SoluGon:
Step 1: Derive governing equaGon.
F

" = A (Tensile Stress)
where = stress, F = force, A = area

Mass

h
l

F
= ma
(Newtons Second Law)
!
where
m = mass, a = acceleraGon

-assume
mass of rod is negligible.
!

total mass
m = lwh!

Therefore, total force acGng on rod is:

r - radius

F = lwh! a

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Scaling - Stress
a - acceleraGon

r - radius

Total cross-secGonal area of rod:

A = "r 2

Therefore, the governing equaGon is:

!

"=

Mass

lwh#a
$r 2

h
l

Step 2: IdenGfy all parameters related to length.

-these are: l, w, h, r
!

Step 3: Redene length related parameters.

l = L, w = dL, h = eL, r = fL

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Scaling - Stress
a - acceleraGon

L # dL # eL # $ # a
"=
%f 2 L2

% de#a ( L3
"='
2 * 2
& $f ) L

" = CL
!

r - radius

Mass

h
l

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12

Scaling Natural World

Land
^

[Madou]

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Scaling - Resonant Frequency and Q

Factor

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Example 3: How does scaling eect the

resonant frequency and Q factor of a
canGlever.
L

t
w

1
f0 =
2"

k
m

3EI
k= 3
L

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Scaling - Resonant Frequency and

Q Factor
L

wt
I=
12

t
w

m = Lwt"

1
f0 =
2"

k
1
=
m 2"

3EI
1
=
3
mL
2"

Ewt
t
=
3
2
4mL
4 "L

E
#

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Scaling - Resonant Frequency and

Q Factor

Take three canGlevers, one of each

meso, micro and nano scale:
C1 - 100 mm x 10 mm x 10 mm
C2 - 100 m x 10 m x 10 m
C3 - 100 nm x 10 nm x 10 nm

All 3 made of single crystal silicon E = 169 GPa, 2330 kg/m3.

C1 - f0 = 678 Hz
C2 - f0 = 678 kHz
C3 - f0 = 678 MHz

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t
w

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Scaling - Resonant Frequency and

Q Factor
Quality factor is the raGo of stored
energy, over lost energy:

m
Q = "0
b

16

L
t
w
Q factor as function of air pressure for
torsion mirror.

where b is the damping factor.

Heavily aected by the damping factor,
so many devices are vacuum packaged
to reduce damping.

A.K.Pandey, R.Pratap and F.S.Chau [2008]

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Scaling - Resonant Frequency and

Q Factor
When canGlevers begin to reach
into the Nano scale they begin to
be in the size order as the mean
free path of air. As a result, the
Q-Factor becomes less sensiGve
to pressure.

Mo Li, H. X. Tang & M. L. Roukes [2007]

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Scaling - Buoyancy
Example 4: What is the eect of scale, on the buoyancy force fb of a sphere,
submersed in a liquid?
- Note: fb = (volume displaced) x (density of uid) x g
- Volume of a sphere

V=
-Therefore:

!
-Therefore: !

4 3
"r
3

4 3
fb = "r #g
3
fb =

4
" (aL )3 #g
3

fb = CL3 ,

where

C=

4 3
"a #g
3

fb $ L3

Drag force is L2 . What aect does bubble size have on the balance between buoyancy
and drag forces? What moves faster a big or litle bubble?

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Reynolds Number
The dimensionless Reynolds number Re represents
raGo of inerGal to viscous forces (drag):
"vd
Re =

- uid density
v - uid velocity
D - characterisGc object length or diameter
- uid viscosity

Flow regimes

Micro Fluidic Example:

v = 1mm/s
d = 100 m
air =/= 1 10-6 m2/s
water =/= 15 10-6 m2/s
Reair = 0.01
Rewater = 0.1

Re<<1: laminar ow, following smooth streamlines

MEMS regime Viscous forces dominate and inerGal forces can be neglected
Re < 2300: laminar ow
Re > 2300: turbulent ow, complex eddies

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Laminar Flow and Diusion

" = 2Dx

where is the diusion Gme for a

distance x, and D is the diusion
constant.
A molecule can diuse 1 m a million
Gmes faster than 1 mm

Lb et al. 2004

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Surface Tension
Liquids want to minimize surface energy.
Scales linearly with decreasing size so it
becomes very strong in microsystems.
Can damage/sGck down structures during
release.
Can be used for assembly.

Syms group, !
Imperial College!

Bright group, Univ. of Colorado!

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SGcGon
MEMS tend to be quite at and smooth, which
combined with the increased signicance of surface area
forces can lead to what is commonly called sGcGon.
SGcGon - occurs when a microstructure gets stuck to the
substrate due to surface adhesion forces being greater
than the mechanical restoring force of the micro-structure.

There are a number of forces involved in sGcGon.

Capillary forces
Van der Waals Force

Non-bond related intermolecular forces

Hydrogen bonding

AtracGve interacGon of a hydrogen atom with an electronegaGve

atom

ElectrostaGc atracGon

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SGcGon
During drying a{er release, surface tension can
cause parts to deform. The parts can then
become permanently stuck to the surface of the
substrate due to sGcGon.

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SGcGon
For in-use sGcGon various surface treatments have been
developed to reduce the occurrence of sGcGon. Self
Assembled Monolayers (SAMs), uorocarbon coaGngs(teon)
and diamond like carbon coaGngs.
SoluGons to post release sGcGon exist in the forms of vapor
phase etching or more commonly criGcal point drying.
Vapor Phase Etching

Etching of the sacricial layer using dry gas phase etchants. Our
nanofabricaGon facility will be equipped with a vapor phase HF for
etching oxide, as well as a XeF2 etcher for vapor phase etching of silicon.

CriGcal point drying

release soluGon is displaced by supercriGcal CO2, which transiGons

directly to gas and does not show surface tension eects.

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Nano Scaling
Beyond the microscale many properGes of materials begin
to change once the nano regime is reached.
Cataloguing and nding ways to exploit these new
properGes is a new and hot area of research.

Youngs Modulus of Nitride CanGlevers

MelGng point of Gold NanoparGcles

Buat et al. 1975

Gavan et al. 2009

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Conclusion

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