Nanospires insulation penetrator for reliable on-touch electrical connection

Highly uniform molybdenum nanospires were fabricated and demonstrated as insulator penetrators, for high-density electrical connection of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) biochemical chiplets. Due to its extremely small size, any insulating material that is intentionally or unintentionally formed on electrical pads can be mechanically penetrated without preliminary treatment with chemicals or plasma, causing minimum surface damage to the pads. Chips designed to characterize the spires were designed, fabricated, and integrated using a combination of surface micromachining techniques and flip chip bonding methods. Measurements supported the capability of the structure to penetrate and contact pads beneath insulators, with an ohmic current-voltage characteristic and admittance monotonically increasing with the number of spires.