What are MEMS?

(Micro-electromechanical Systems)
• Fabricated using micromachining technology
• Used for sensing, actuation or are passive
micro-structures
• Usually integrated with electronic circuitry
for control and/or information processing
3-D Micromachined Structures

Linear Rack Gear Reduction Drive Triple-Piston Microsteam Engine

Photos from Sandia National Lab. Website: http://mems.sandia.gov

3-D Micromachined Structures

2 dust mites on an optical Deflection of laser light using

shutter a hinged mirror

Movies from Sandia National Lab. Website: http://mems.sandia.gov

Applications: Passive Structures
Inkjet Printer Nozzle
 Applications: Sensors
Pressure sensor:
• Piezoresistive sensing
• Capacitive sensing
• Resonant sensing

Application examples:
• Manifold absolute pressure (MAP) sensor
• Disposable blood pressure sensor (Novasensor)
Piezoresistive Pressure Sensors

Pressure
Piezoresistive elements

SiO2
p+ Si
<100> Si
substrate
Piezoresistive Pressure Sensors
Wheatstone Bridge configuration

Illustration from “An Introduction to MEMS Engineering”, N. Maluf

Applications: Sensors
Inertial sensors
• Acceleration
– Air bag crash sensing
– Seat belt tension
– Automobile suspension control
– Human activity for pacemaker control

• Vibration
– Engine management
– Security devices
– Monitoring of seismic activity

• Angle of inclination
– Vehicle stability and roll
 Accelerometers
Static deformation:
F Ma
d static  
Spring Damping k k
F=kx F=Dv
Dynamic behavior
Inertial mass
M d x
2
dx
F=Ma
M 2
 D  kx  F ext  Ma
dt dt
k
r  Resonance frequency
M
 rM Quality factor
Q 
D
 Accelerometers
Accelerometer parameters
• acceleration range (G) (1G=9.81 m/s2)
• sensitivity (V/G)
• resolution (G)
• bandwidth (Hz)
• cross axis sensitivity

Application Range Bandwidth Comment

Air Bag Deployment ± 50 G ~ 1 kHz
Engine vibration ±1G > 10 kHz resolve small accelerations (< 1 micro G)
Cardiac Pacemaker control ±2G < 50 Hz multiaxis, ultra-low power consumption
 Capacitive Accelerometers
Anchor to substrate

Spring Displacement Inertial Mass

Stationary Polysilicon fingers

Based on ADXL accelerometers, Analog Devices, Inc.

 Applications: Actuators
Texas Instruments Digital Micromirror DeviceTM

• Invented by Texas Instruments in 1986

• Array of up to 1.3 million mirrors
• Each mirror is 16 mm on a side with a pitch of 17 mm
• Resolutions: 800x600 pixels (SVGA) and 1280x1024 pixels (SXGA)

For an animated demo of this device, go to http://www.dlp.com/dlp_technology/

 Digital Micromirror Device

From “An Introduction to Microelectromechanical Systems Engineering” by Nadim Maluf

 Digital Micromirror Device

• Mirror is moved by electrostatic actuation (24 V applied to bias electrode)

• Projection system consists of the DMD, electronics, light source and projection optics
• Switching time: 16 µs (about 1000 times faster than the response time of the eye)
=> Acheive grey scale by adjusting the duration of pulse
• Placing a filter wheel with the primary colors between light source and the micromirrors
=> Achieve full color by timing the reflected light to pass the wheel at the right color

From “An Introduction to Microelectromechanical Systems Engineering” by Nadim Maluf

 Some future applications
• Biological applications:
– Microfluidics
– Lab-on-a-Chip
– Micropumps
– Resonant microbalances
– Micro Total Analysis systems

• Mobile communications:
– Micromechanical resonator for resonant circuits and filters

• Optical communications:
– Optical switching
 Microfluidics / DNA Analysis

In the future, a complete DNA sequencing systems should include:

•Amplification (PCR)
•Detection (electrophoresis)
•Fluid preparation and handling (pumps, valves, filters, mixing and rinsing)
MEMS !
Basic microfabrication technologies
• Deposition
– Chemical vapor deposition (CVD/PECVD/LPCVD)
– Epitaxy
– Oxidation
– Evaporation
– Sputtering
– Spin-on methods
• Etching
– Wet chemical etching
• Istropic
• Anisotropic
– Dry etching
• Plasma etch
• Reactive Ion etch (RIE, DRIE)
• Patterning
– Photolithography
– X-ray lithography
 Bulk micromachining
Anisotropic etching of silicon

E tc h a n t r etch 100 S e le c t iv it y t o D is a d v a n t a g e s
+
p - Si
r etch 111
P o ta s s iu m H y d r o x id e 100 Yes - H ig h ly c o r r o s iv e
(K O H ) - N o t C M O S c o m p a tib le
T e tr a m e th y l a m m o n iu m 3 0 -5 0 ye s - f o rm a tio n o f p y r a m id a l
h y d r o x id e h illo c k s a t b o tto m o f c a v it y
(T M A H )
E th y le n e d ia m in e 35 Yes - c a r c in o g e n ic v a p o r s
p y r o c h a te c h o l
(E D P )
Bulk micromachining
Anisotropic etch of {100} Si
111  a

0.707a
54.74º
Bulk micromachining: Pressure sensors

Piezoresistive elements

SiO2
p+ Si
<100> Si
substrate
 Surface Micromachining

substrate

Important issues:
• selectivity of structural, sacrificial and substrate materials
• stress of structural material
• stiction
 Surface Micromachining
Most commonly used materials for surface micromachining:
• substrate: silicon
• sacrificial material: SiO2 or phosphosilicate glass (PSG)
• structural material: polysilicon

Alternative materials

Substrates Sacrificial Structural

Glass Polymer Thin film silicon (a-Si:H, c-Si)
Plastic Metals silicon nitrides
metals silicon nitride Silicon carbide
Metals
polymers
bilayer composites
 Surface Micromachining
Stress
• Polysilicon deposited by LPCVD (T~600 ºC) usually has large stress
• High T anneal (600-1000 ºC) for more than 2 hours relaxes the strain

Low temperature, thin film materials has much less intrinsic stress
Photo from R.T. Howe, Univ. of Calif, Berkeley, 1988
 Surface Micromachining
Stiction
Surface tension of liquid during evaporation results in capillary forces that causes
the structures to stick to the substrate if the structures are not stiff enough.

To avoid this problem

• make the structures stiffer (ie, shorter, thicker or higher Young’s modulus)
• use super-critical drying in CO2 (liquid  supercritical fluid  gas)
• roughen substrate to reduce contact area with structure
• coat structures with a hydrophobic passivation layer
 LIGA – X-ray Lithography,
Electroplating (Galvanoformung), Molding (Abformung)

Remove mold
Immerse in chemical bath and
electroplate the metal
Expose and develop photoresist
Deposit photoresist
Deposit plating base
 LIGA

Photos from MCNC – MEMS group

 Wafer bonding- Anodic
cathode current

+ + ++ + + Na+ -
glass V
- - - - - -
silicon +
chuck

• bring sodium contating glass (Pyrex) and silicon together

• heat to high temperature (200-500 ºC) in vacuum, air or inert ambient
• apply high electric field between the 2 materials (V~1000V) causing mobile + ions to
migrate to the cathode leaving behind fixed negative charge at glass/silicon interface
• bonding is complete when current vanishes
• glass and silicon held together by electrostatic attraction between – charge in glass and
+ charges in silicon
Piezoresistive pressure sensor
SiO2
p+ Si
<100> Si
glass
Summary: MEMS fabrication
• MEMS technology is based on silicon
microelectronics technology
• Main MEMS techniques
– Bulk micromachining
– Surface micromachining
– LIGA and variations
– Wafer bonding
 Thin-film MEMS
Thin films allows:
• Low-temperature processing
• Large area, low cost, flexible or biocompatible
substrates
• Possibility to integrate with a CMOS or thin film
electronics based back plane
• Control of structural material film properties
(mechanical, electronic, optical and surface)
 Surface micromachining on glass
S acrificial L ayer D ep o sitio n an d P attern ing

S tru ctu ral L ayer D ep o sitio n an d P attern in g

S acrificial L ayer R em o val

d=1 m; h=500 nm; b=10 m

Lmax(bridge) ~ 60 m ; Lmax(cantilever) ~ 30 m
 Electrostatic Actuation

• Electrostatic force between gate and counter-electrode

• Electrostatic force is always attractive
 Optical detection

•A laser beam is focused on the structure and the reflected

light is collected with an intensity (or quadrant) detector.
•The deviation of the beam is proportional to the
deflection
 Resonance frequency
3 0 0 n m a - S i:H / 1 0 0 n m A l 1 0  m - w id e b r id g e s
D e fle c tio n ( n o r m a liz e d )
d e c r e a s in g le n g th
45m 30m 25m 20m 18m 15m 12m 10m

1 .0
1/ 2
3 . 52  EI 
fr  
2 


2 L   A 
0 .5

0 .0

0 5 10 15 20 25
F re q u e n c y (M H z )
• Optical detection of electrical actuation
• Resonance is inversely proportional to square of the length
• 20 MHz resonances measured with 10 m-long a-Si:H bridges (Q~100
in air; Q up to 5000 in vacuum)
 MEMS Resources
Reference Books
• Nadim Maluf, An Introduction to Microelectromechanical Engineering (Artech House,
Boston,2000)
• M. Elewenspoek and R. Wiegerink, Mechanical Microsensors (Springer-Verlag, 2001)
• Héctor J. De Los Santos, Introduction to Microelectromechanical (MEM) Microwave
Systems (Artech House, Boston, 1999)

Websites
• Sandia National Lab: http://mems.sandia.gov
• Berkeley Sensors and Actuators Center: http://www-bsac.eecs.berkeley.edu
• MEMS Clearinghouse: http://www.memsnet.org/

Some companies with MEMS products

• Accelerometers – Analog Devices:
http://www.analog.com/technology/mems/index.html
• Digital Light Processing Projector- Texas Instruments: http://www.dlp.com
• Micro-electrophoresis chip – Caliper Technologies: http://www.calipertech.com