A novel sensing gap reconfigurable capacitive type MEMS accelerometer with high sensitivity and high resolution is designed, fabricated and characterized. The present MEMS accelerometer is fabricated by using simple SOI process-DRIE. However, conventional Silicon on Insulator (SOI) process is hard to make patterns which is smaller than 1 um
because of its high aspect ratio and ICP etching error such as loading-effect and under-cutting. So we have adopted a
simple idea of the MEMS actuator-stopper system to modulate the sensing gap precisely. Unlike previous capacitive type
MEMS accelerometer which has an anchored reference comb electrodes, the proposed accelerometer has a movable reference comb with MEMS electrostatic actuators and stoppers. By simply applying DC bias to MEMS actuators, the reference comb electrode is moved to the sensing comb structure until the actuators contacting the stoppers. The gap between sensing comb fingers and reference comb fingers is reduced by the gap between actuators and stoppers. In this paper, the initial sensing gap is 1.5um and it reduced to 0.5um, when working. Then, the overall capacitance and sensitivity is simple increased. The capacitance is increased from 3.47pF at the OFF state to 5.35pF at the ON state by applying 2V DC bias.
In this paper, we describe a novel multiplexed surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor which is made of cyclic olefin copolymers (COCs, TOPASTM). This material has excellent chemical resistance, low water uptake (< 0.01%), and high refractive index (nHe-Ne=1.53) suitable to use as an optical coupler (prism) as well as a sensor substrate. We fabricated a standard slide glass sized, prism integrated, and injection molded COC-SPR sensor which are being applied toward the multiplexed detection of DNA single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP). To evaluate the sensitivity of COC-SPR sensor, we first patterned MgF2 on gold-coated COC-SPR sensor and observed the shift of minimum reflectivity (SPR dip) in pixel address. As incident light source we used an expanded, collimated, rectangular shaped He-Ne laser, with a diffuser for beam homogenization. With expanded laser beam we varied incident angle so that the angular shift is expressed as the darkest pixel shift on CCD. For optimized SPR characteristics and sensor configuration, analytical calculations (Fresnel equation) were performed, and the best SPR conditions were found to be dAu~48 nm at wavelength λ=633 nm with respected resonance angle at θSPR =44.2° for COC-SPR sensor.
For realization of a highly sensitive thermal microflow sensor with small active area of 100 X 100 micrometers 2, a main interest is focused on decreasing thermal loss due to a substrate and air medium. A basic microstructure that was composed of a vacuum cavity with 6.2 micrometers depth and a stacked membrane was formed by the DECTOR (deep cavity using trench oxidation and release) process using silicon surface micromachining. On the vacuum platform, a n+-doped heater and two n+/p+-doped thermopiles with 1.0-micrometers -width poly-Si lines and Pt RTDs as major parts of the flow sensor were subsequently implemented by CMOS processing. The completed sensor had a microfluidics with a microchannel of 500(w) X 200(d) micrometers 2. The thermopiles as main temperature sensors showed fast thermal response time of 68 microsecond(s) and maximum thermoelectric responsivity of 25 mV/mW. Flow measurements up to 430 sccm for air and 80 (mu) l/min for water revealed that the sensor outputs were significantly enhanced with the increase of the heater power and decrease of the distance between the heater and thermopile hot junction. Irrespective of a much smaller active area compared to bulk-micromachined thermal flow sensors, a high sensitivity of about 3.08 X 10-2 mV/mW/sccm and 2.3 X 10-2 mV/mW/((mu) l/min) was achieved for air and water as working fluid, respectively. Thanks to the vacuum platform and optimized sensor configuration, it is possible to improve flow sensitivity and to extend a linear flow range, accompanying with a reduced sensor size and low power consumption.
In silicon surface micromachining, the HF GPE process was verified as a very effective method for the dry release of microstructures. The developed GPE system with anhydrous HF gas and 2-propanol vapor was characterized and its selective etching properties were discussed. The polysilicon membrane was used as a structural layer and LTO and PECVD oxide as a sacrificial layer. We successfully fabricated the surface micromachined microstructures of a thermally driven micropump with no virtually process-induced stiction and no residues after the GPE of sacrificial oxides on polysilicon substrates.
Main interests for MEMS devices are to reduce thermal, dielectric and magnetic loss in active areas due to a substrate and an air medium. For this purpose, deep vacuum cavity structures with planarized stacked membranes were fabricated by the DECTOR process based on silicon surface micromachining. We discuss details of the developed process, especially the effects of a Si trench geometry, post- annealing of the poly-Si layer and HF release conditions on completion of the vacuum structure. To identify validity of the proposed microstructures, thermal microflow sensors having an n+-doped heater and two n+- /p+-doped thermopiles with poly-Si lines were implemented on the various cavity structures of 100 by 100 by 6.2 micrometers 3 using additional CMOS batch processing. The heating efficiency of the sensor on the vacuum cavity is increased by a factor of 5.8 and 1.7 compared to the structures with residual oxides and the air cavity, respectively. It is also found that the sensitivity using the downstream thermopile of 2.5 M(Omega) , 1.53 by 10-1 mV/(m/s)/mW under 10 mW input power, is about ten and three times higher than corresponding values with residual oxides and the air cavity. Therefore, the configuration employing the deep vacuum cavity structure has advantages of low power consumption and the high sensitivity. These results support versatile MEMS applications.
The effects of impurity doping and heat treatments on the characteristics of thick polysilicon films were studied for development of the structural materials in the MEMS. In this study, 8-15 layers of 6.5-12 micrometers thickness polysilicon films were deposited to have a symmetrical structure using low-pressure chemical vapor deposition with a novel stacking method. We have measured the physical and structural characteristics using micromachined test patterns to verify the minimal stress and stress gradient in the polysilicon layers, according to the film stacking, doping, and thermal treatment methods. The multilayer film revealed the complex orientation composed of (100), (220) and (311) grains after annealing and showe4d a higher doping concentration induced a higher compressive stress of 70 Mpa since phosphorus gave rise to a compressive stress in a polysilicon film. However, the doping method for the most uniform distribution of phosphorus induced the lowest stress gradient among all samples. A polysilicon microresonator with thickness of 6.5 micrometers were manufactured by the symmetrical stacking and optimum doping method in which the dopant concentration was lowered and annealing at 1000 degrees C. The film had a low stress of 7.6 MPa and a low stress gradient of -0.15 MPa/micrometers and revealed good slopes of sidewalls after dry etching. The fabricated test structure for a micro gyroscope showed that the driving resonant frequency and the sensitivity was measured as 9,175 Hz and 5 mV-sec/deg under the condition of a static angular velocity, respectively.
We designed and fabricated a planar-type thermoelastic microactuator with a latch-up operation for optical switching. Latch-up actuation is prerequisite to implement an optical switch with low power consumption and high reliability. The proposed microactuator consists of four cantilever-shaped thermal actuators, four displacement linkages, two shallow arch-shaped leaf springs, a mobile shuttle mass with a micromirror, and four elastic boundaries. The planar microactuator consists of phosphorous-doped 12 micrometers -thick polysilicon as a structural layer and LTO (Low Temperature Oxide) of 3 micrometers thickness as a sacrificial layer on polysilicon substrate. The experimental displacement of the microactuator was more than 21 micrometers at 10V input voltage for the prototype of a thermoelastic microactuator. The frequency response for square wave input was measured up to 50Hz, which was the highest frequency we can detect using optical microscope for now. The proposed microactuators have advantages of easy assembly with other optical component by way of fiber alignment in the substrate plane, and its fabrication process features simplicity while retaining batch-fabrication economy.
With the great demand for WDM (Wavelength Division Multiplexer) optical communications, optical switches are expected to become essential components in future networks. A micromachined optical device has been developed for optical communications due to its high reliability, low power, low crosstalk, and low insertion loss. In this paper, we present two types of new lateral actuators for optical switches and tunable filters. The microactuator for an optical switch utilized triple-folded springs with higher compliance for low voltage operation, and electrostatic comb driver for large stroke with low power, respectively. For higher resolution of tunable filter, the microactuator employed a stroke reduction mechanism with meander-type springs. In order to verify the effectiveness of a proposed microactuators, we fabricated the prototypes of polysilicon microactuators for optical switch and tunable filter. The lateral microactuator consists of a polysilicon of 6.5 micrometers thickness as a structural layer and thermal oxide of 2 micrometers thickness as a sacrificial layer. The structures of silicon microactuators are patterned by RIE (Reactive Ion Etching), and finally released by using newly developed HF GPE (Gas- Phase Etching) process with virtually no stiction. We showed the theoretical and experimental driving characteristics of the fabricated microactuators and also discussed the optical properties of a designed optical switch with a focusing mirror.
A micro gyroscope, which vibrates in two orthogonal axes on the substrate plane, is designed and fabricated. Fabrication processes of the micro gyroscope are composed of anisotropic silicon etching by RIE, dry release by newly developed anhydrous HF gas-phase etching (GPE) of the buried sacrificial oxide layer, stress relief by multi-step annealing, metal electrode formation. The GPE process was verified as a very effective method for the release of compliant microstructures of micro gyroscope. The developed GPE system with anhydrous HF gas and CH3OH vapor was characterized and its etching properties were discussed. We successfully fabricated micro gyroscope with no virtually process-induced stiction and no residual products after GPE of TEOS, LTO, and thermal oxide on silicon substrates.
An electrostatic diaphragm micropump for fluids and gases has been designed and fabricated by silicon surface micromachining. Diaphragm structures are bridge-type, cantilever-type and fan-type polysilicon, and sacrificial layers are low-temperatures oxide on polysilicon substrates. The developed anhydrous HF gas-phase etching of sacrificial oxide on polysilicon substrates has been employed to release polysilicon microstructures. The fabricated micropump with size of the order of 1 mm2 operates at square wave voltage of 10V and 2Hz under near room temperature and normal atmospheric pressure.
Bi-stable microactuators are necessary to implement optical switch and microrelay with low power and high reliability. In this work, we analyzed the buckling and vibration characteristics of a planar microactuators with shallow arch- shaped leaf springs. To investigate elastic stability of the proposed microactuator, we derived static buckling modes. A concentrated force of 0.35 muN at the center of beam was required for the snap-through motion for the beam length of 1600 micrometer, thickness of 3 micrometer, beam width of 6.5 micrometer and initial rise of 15 micrometer considering only the first buckling mode. We also analyzed vibration characteristics of arch-shaped leaf spring. The resonant frequencies of the first modes across over the second mode and keeps constant resonant frequencies over the cross point. On the contrary, the resonant frequencies of second modes become almost constant regardless of initial rise. The planar microactuator with shallow arch-shaped leaf springs at both sides were fabricated using silicon micromachining technology. The vertical structure of the planar microactuator features simplicity and consists of p-doped polysilicon as a structural layer and LTO (Low Temperature Oxide) as a sacrificial layer. The polysilicon was annealed for the relaxation of residual stress and HF GPE (gas-phase etching) process was finally employed in order to release the microactuators. These bi- stable planar microactuators with shallow arch-shaped leaf springs showed a high stiffness against external disturbance, and would be very useful for the stable operation of micro optical switch and microrelay.
A microgyroscope, which vibrates in two orthogonal axes on the substrate plane, is designed and fabricated. The shuttle mass of the vibrating gyroscope consists of two parts. The one is outer shuttle mass which vibrates in driving mode guided by four folded sprints attached to anchors. And the other is inner shuttle mass which vibrates in driving mode as the outer frame does and also can vibrate in sensing mode guided by four folded springs attached to the outer shuttle mass. Due to the directions of vibrating modes, it is possible to fabricate the gyroscope with simplified process by using polysilicon on insulator structure. Fabrication processes of the microgyroscope are composed of anisotropic silicon etching by RIE, gas-phase etching of the buried sacrificial oxide layer, metal electrode formation. An electromechanical model of the vibrating microgyroscope was modeled and bandwidth characteristics of the gyroscope were analyzed firstly. The analyzed characteristics of the gyroscope were evaluated by experiment. The gyroscope operates at DC 4V and AC 0.1V in a vacuum chamber of 100mtorr. The detection circuit consists of a discrete sense amplifier and a noise canceling circuit. Using the evaluated electromechanical mode, an operating condition for high performance of the gyroscope is obtained.
We employed a newly developed HF gas-phase etching (GPE) process for the removal of sacrificial oxides. The structural layers are P-doped multi-stacked polysilicon and silicon epi-layer of SOI substrates and sacrificial layers are TEOS, LTO, PSG, and thermal oxides on silicon nitride or polysilicon substrates. The characteristics of residual products on polysilicon or silicon nitride were scrutinized by using SEM and AES. After GPE of TEOS, LTO, and PSG on the silicon nitride substrate, the polysilicon microstructures are stuck to the underlying substrate because neither the SiOxNy layers nor the H3PO4(H2O) layer vaporize. We found that the etching of TEOS, LTO, and thermal oxide on a polysilicon substrate shows no residual product and no stiction.
In this paper, we present a detailed study of the effect of the interface in multi-stacked polysilicon film. In order to investigate microstructural stress characteristics, we fabricated laminated type 2 micrometers thickness of polysilicon test structures such as bridges and rotating beam pairs. Also the characteristics of the various doping and deposition method, and annealing treatment are examined through the SIMS analysis. The relative interface location was carried by changing the film thickness for each deposition step and this was compared with 2 micrometers thick film deposited at a time. We found that the interface is one of the key factors deciding the stress gradient in multi- stacked polysilicon film but the residual stress is independent of the interface location. Finally, on the basis of the result, fabricated a test pattern of the multi- stacked polysilicon microstructure with thickness of 6.5 micrometers using the symmetrical stacking and doping method has a low stress of 7.6 MPa and a low stress gradient of -0.15 MPa/micrometers .
In silicon surface micromachining, the newly developed GPE (gas-phase etching) process was verified as a very effective method for the release of highly compliant microstructure. The developed GPE system with anhydrous HF (hydrogen fluoride) gas and CH3OH (methanol) vapor was characterized and its selective etching properties were discussed. P-doped polysilicon and SOI (silicon on insulator) substrate were used as a structural layer and TEOS (tetraethylorthosilicate) oxide and thermal oxide as a sacrificial layer. The etch rates of HF GPE were 400 angstrom/min for sacrificial TEOS oxide and 1000 angstrom/min for bulk TEOS oxide. For SOI structures, we adopted two step process of wet etch and HF GPE process to reduce the process time and confirmed relatively low etch rate of 55 angstrom/min for 1.8 micrometer-thick thermal oxide after 6:1 BHF etching for 15 minutes.
One of the limiting factors in fabrication of surface micromachined structures is the residual stress formed in the film during deposition. In order to fabricate the microstructure using the polysilicon layers deposited in a conventional LPCVD furnace, we used the multi-stacked polysilicon films and reported a method of stress control in that films. In the multi-stacked polysilicon film there exist the polysilicon/polysilicon interfaces, at which oxidized layers are formed during film stacking and dopant atoms are segregated. These facts made the multi-stacked film difficult to be used as structural layers for microstructure fabrication. In order to control the stress profile, we investigated the effects of dopant distribution and oxidized layers on the stress profile in the multi-stacked film using micromachined test structures. The stress profile could be modified considerably by multi-steps doping process and the residual stress was reduced to 15 MPa for 5 micrometer thick film. The contribution of the oxidized layer to the stress profile was also studied extensively and we could reduce the effect of the oxidized layer by the symmetrical stacking of films. Using the simple model, the dopant-induced stress profile was calculated theoretically from the dopant concentration profile and it suggested an improved method for estimating the stress profile of doped polysilicon films. Using the method developed in this study, the microstructure made of the multi-stacked polysilicon film was successfully fabricated with a low stress gradient of 0.5 MPa/micrometer. The conventional LPCVD equipment without any modification can fabricate the polysilicon structural layer for the microstructure fabrication by the multi-stacking process, which offered the convenient method of stress control.
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