Abstract
This paper describes tribological issues in micromachines and possible solutions to them. In microsystems, surface forces such as capillary force, electrostatic force and van der Waals force become dominant compared to the gravitational force because of the scale effect. Since the surface forces often cause increase in adhesion, friction and wear, tribological consideration is important in designing -the microsystems. Texturing and hydrophobic coating of surfaces are effective to reduce the adhesion and friction. Air bearings are also effective for preventing the friction and wear of high-speed sliding elements such as rotors of micro rotating machinery and sliders in hard disk drives. To investigate structures and functions of insects or other small living creatures provides many suggestions to the tribological issues in micromachines because they have solved many of the same issues during their evolution.
