TABLE OF CONTENTS Since the mid-1970s, microeleetromechanical systems(MEMS) have emerged as a successful technology by utilizing the existing infrastructure of the well-established integrated circuit (IC) industry. MEMS technology along with very-large-scale-integration (VLSI) technology has created new opportunities in physical, chemical, and biological sensor and actuator applications. MEMS devices are typically manufactured using VLSI IC process-compatible fabrication techniques; however, the test methods for MEMS significantly differ from those used for VLSI circuits. This chapter focuses on MEMS testing and characterization, a topic of special interest to researchers and practicing engineers.
In this chapter, we begin with an overview of the MEMS field followed by a brief discussion of various considerations for testing MEMS devices at the chip, wafer, and package level. A review of various test methods used for MEMS devices is presented, including electrical, mechanical, and environmental tests. We next discuss experimental test setup and performance characteristics of interest for various MEMS devices such as radio-frequency (RF) MEMS switches, resonators, optical micromirrors, pressure sensors, microphones, humidity sensors, microflu-idic systems, accelerometers, and gyroscopes. Due to the growing importance of microfluidics-based biochips, also referred to as lab-on-a-chip, and their potential for replacing cumbersome and expensive laboratory equipment, we include a section on the testing of digital microfluidic biochips. Finally, we present design-for-testability (DFT) and built-in self-test (BIST) techniques that have been proposed for testing...
