As manufacturing technology has improved overthe past few year, it is inevitable that the size of components to bemanufactured has been affected, and the desire to reduce the sizeof such components is the driving force behind the move towardsmicro-and nanotechnology. One of the problems is the electrodebreakdown at electrode separations for less than a millimeterseparation. At large separation, the behaviour of the electrodeshas been widely studied and is reasonably well understood.However, some fundamental problems have not been properlyaddressed such as maximum safe operating voltages and criticaldimensions required at the small separations between thedifferent types of materials. A systematic study of electricalbreakdown at sub-millimetre separations using materialscommonly used in the fabrication of microdevices is beingundertaken. Specimens for examination at electrode separationfrom 500 nm to 25 μm have been made with different electrodeconfigurations, such as flat to flat and flat to point.
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