Microcantilever beams are frequently utilized as sensor platforms in microelectromechanical system (MEMS) devices. These highly compliant, surface micromachined structures generally fail by adhering to the underlying substrate during processing or subsequent operation. Such failures, commonly known as 'stiction' failures, can be prevented or repaired in a number of ways, including: low adhesion coatings; rinsing with low surface energy agents; and active approaches such as laser irradiation.

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... ta et al. [1] recently demonstrated that stress waves could be used to repair stiction-failed structures. This paper extends the work of Gupta et al. by developing a fracture mechanics theory of the repair process and compares that theory with corresponding experiments. We show that: (1)Incremental crack growth is associated with each laser pulse, the extent of which is directly related to the laser fluence; (2) Repeated pulsing fully repairs all of the microcantilevers; and (3) a fracture mechanics model accurately predicts the observed experimental results.