316
2, APRIL 2006
Fabrication and Testing of Bulk Micromachined
Silicon Carbide Piezoresistive Pressure Sensors
for High Temperature Applications
Chien-Hung Wu, Member, IEEE, Christian A. Zorman, and Mehran Mehregany, Senior Member, IEEE
Abstract—This paper explores the development of high-temper-
ature pressure sensors based on polycrystalline and single-crys-
talline 3C-SiC piezoresistors and fabricated by bulk microma-
chining the underlying 100-mmdiameter (100) silicon substrate.
In one embodiment, phosphorus-doped APCVD polycrystalline
3C-SiC (poly-SiC) was used for the piezoresistors and sensor
diaphragm, with LPCVD silicon nitride employed to electrically
isolate the piezoresistor from the diaphragm. These piezoresistors
fabricated from poly-SiC films deposited at different temperatures
and doping levels were characterized, showing 2.1 as the best
gauge factor and exhibited a sensitivities up to 20.9-mV/V psi at
room temperature. In a second embodiment, epitaxially-grown
unintentionally nitrogen-doped single-crystalline 3C-SiC piezore-
sistors were fabricated on silicon diaphragms, with thermally
grown silicon dioxide employed for the piezoresistor electrical
isolation from the diaphragm. The associated 3C SiC/SiO2 /Si
substrate was fabricated by bonding a (100) silicon wafer carrying
the 3C-SiC onto a silicon wafer with thermal oxide covering its
surface. The 3C-SiC handle wafer was then etched away in KOH.
The diaphragm was fabricated by time etching the silicon sub-
strate. The sensors were tested at temperatures up to 400 C and
exhibited a sensitivity of 177.6-mV/V psi at room temperature
and 63.1-mV/V psi at 400 C. The estimated longitudinal gauge
factor of 3C-SiC piezoresistors along the [100] direction was
estimated at about 18 at room temperature and 7 at 400 C.
Index Terms—High-temperature sensors, polycrystalline SiC,
pressure sensor, single-crystalline 3C-SiC, wafer bonding.
I. INTRODUCTION
S ILICON CARBIDE (SiC) has long been recognized for its
excellent mechanical properties, chemical inertness, radi-
ation resistance, high-temperature stability, high thermal con-
ductivity, and wide bandgap. These properties make semicon-
ductor-grade SiC an exceptional material for harsh environment
microsystems where sensors and actuators have to endure high
operating temperatures, corrosive/erosive media, large shocks,
and/or high radiation levels [1]–[3]. For example, monitoring
and affecting combustion processes in power generation sys-
Manuscript received October 7, 2004; revised January 5, 2005. This work
was supported by DARPA under Grant DABT63-98-1-0010. The associate ed-
itor coordinating the review of this paper and approving it for publication was
Prof. Pavel Ripka.
C.-H. Wu is with the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Case
Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106 USA, and also with the FLX
Micro, Inc., Cleveland, OH 44122 USA (e-mail: wu@flxmicro.com).
C. A. Zorman and M. Mehregany are with the Department of Electrical En-
gineering and Computer Science, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland,
OH 44106 USA (e-mail: christian.zorman@case.edu; mehran@case.edu).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSEN.2006.870145
1530-437X/$20.00 © 2006 IEEE
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 6, NO.
tems such as gas turbine, internal combustion, and diesel en-
gines require harsh environment capability, in particular oper-
ating temperatures of 500 C. Pressure sensing is enabling
in such applications where the desire is to tune the combustion
process for performance, efficiency, and emissions.
This paper explores the development of high-temperature
pressure sensors based on polycrystalline and single-crystalline
3C-SiC piezoresistors and fabricated using bulk microma-
chining of the underlying 100-mmdiameter (100) silicon
substrate. The approach takes advantage of established silicon
bulk micromachining techniques to explore the SiC’s high-tem-
perature piezoresistive capability.
II. BACKGROUND
3C-SiC is a particularly attractive SiC polytype since it
can be epitaxially grown on large diameter (100) silicon sub-
strates, thus allowing for the use of the existing silicon bulk
micromachining techniques in device fabrication. Unfortu-
nately, the lattice and thermal mismatches between silicon
and 3C-SiC lead to 3C-SiC films which have a high density
of defects, especially near the SiC/Si interface. As a result,
the heterojunction formed at the SiC/Si interface suffers from
unacceptably high leakage currents (in particular) at elevated
temperatures. This shortcoming in turn prevents effective
junction isolation of 3C-SiC piezoresistors fabricated directly
on silicon. One approach to reduce heterojunction leakage is
to use thin silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers as substrates for
3C-SiC growth, tuning the growth to carbonize the entire thin
silicon layer to create 3C SiC/SiO /Si substrates. In this way,
dielectrically isolated 3C-SiC piezoresistors can be fabricated
on silicon diaphragms by bulk micromachining the (100) sil-
icon substrate to create pressure sensors [4]. However, in this
approach, the thin silicon layer of the SOI substrate is often not
completely converted to 3C-SiC, thus creating hybrid SiC/Si
piezoresistors. An ideal implementation of such dielectrically
isolated 3C-SiC piezoresistors would have the consequent
3C SiC/SiO /Si structure absent of any 3C-SiC/Si interfaces.
With this 3C SiC/SiO /Si substrate, which is demonstrated
here through 3C-SiC epitaxial growth, wafer bonding, and etch
back, a pressure sensor consisting of dielectrically isolated
3C-SiC thin film piezoresistors on a bulk micromachined
single-crystalline (100) silicon diaphragm can be fabricated as
described below. The sensor transducer being made of silicon is
of course limited in operating temperature since silicon begins
to undergo significant softening above 600 C.
WU et al.: FABRICATION AND TESTING OF BULK MICROMACHINED SILICON CARBIDE PIEZORESISTIVE PRESSURE SENSORS 317

Fig. 1. Cross-sectional schematic diagrams describing the fabrication process for pressure sensors with poly-SiC piezoresistors and diaphragms: (a) after poly-SiC
deposition, (b) after metallization, (c) after diaphragm fabrication.

Alternatively, unlike single-crystalline 3C-SiC, polycrys-

talline SiC (poly-SiC) can be deposited by chemical vapor
deposition (CVD) directly on electrically insulating layers like
SiO and Si N [2], [5], [6]. These insulators can then serve
as either sacrificial layers or provide electrical isolation of the
silicon substrate. Based on this technology, both single- and
multilayer surface micromached poly-SiC microelectrome-
chanical systems (MEMS) devices such as lateral resonators [7]
and micromotors [8] have been fabricated, with demonstrated
operation at temperatures well above 400 C. Based on this
technology, poly-SiC piezoresistors electrically isolated from
poly-SiC diaphragms by low pressure chemical vapor deposi-
tion (LPCVD) silicon nitride films are used here in conjunction
with bulk micromachining of the (100) silicon substrate to
fabricate pressure sensors, primarily motivated by eliminating
the need for wafer bonding and secondarily to go beyond the
high-temperature mechanical limit of a silicon diaphragm.

Fig. 2. Cross-sectional schematic diagrams describing the SiC lift-off

III. PRESSURE SENSOR FABRICATION PROCESS
A. Pressure Sensors With Poly-SiC Piezoresistors and
Diaphragms
Fig. 1 shows cross-sectional schematic diagrams of the fab-
rication process for this embodiment. A double-side polished,
525- m-thick, 100-mm-diameter (100) silicon wafer was used
as the substrate. A five-mask process was designed for fabri-
cation of these sensors. Fabrication began with deposition of a
10- m-thick poly-SiC film on the silicon substrate at a temper-
ature of 1050 C using a SiH flow rate of 153 sccm, a C H
patterning process using SiO masks: (a) formation of the SiO mask,
(b) deposition of SiC in and on the mask, and (c) dissolving the SiO mask in
BOE to form a SiC patterned structure.
flow rate of 65 sccm, and a H flow rate of 25 slm in an atmo-
spheric pressure chemical vapor deposition (APCVD) reactor
described in detail elsewhere [9]. The deposition rate using this
source gas mixture is about 1.5 m per hour. In this reactor,
poly-SiC deposits only on the front side of the wafer, thus fa-
cilitating backside processing of the wafer. The poly-SiC film
was then polished down to a mirror finish using a SiC slurry.
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TABLE I
DEPOSITION CONDITIONS AND TEST RESULTS FOR POLY-SiC FILMS USED FOR PIEZORESISTOR FABRICATION
A 0.2- m-thick Si N was deposited on the poly-SiC film by
conventional LPCVD for electrical isolation [Fig. 1(a)].
The SiC lift-off patterning process in Fig. 2 was used to
create polycrystalline SiC piezoresistors on the Si N layer,
utilizing distinct differences in SiC film morphology on SiO
and Si N . A 1.5- m-thick low-temperature oxide (LTO) film
was deposited on the Si N layer, then densified by annealing
at 1100 C for 1 h. The piezoresistor molds were patterned into
this densified LTO layer by conventional photolithography and
wet oxide etching [Fig. 2(a)]. After removing the photoresist, a
0.5- m-thick poly-SiC film was deposited by APCVD on the
wafer from which to fabricate the piezoresistors [Fig. 2(b)].
In order to explore the effect of microstructure and doping on
the gauge factor of poly-SiC, three different films deposited
under different temperature and doping conditions were pur-
sued. Table I outlines the deposition temperature and doping
condition in each case.
The wafer was then dipped in buffered HF to remove the
LTO molds, lifting off the unwanted, porous poly-SiC on the
LTO mold and leaving the well-nucleated poly-SiC on the
Si N layer in the desired pattern [Fig. 2(c)]. After forming
the piezoresistors, the wafer was coated with a 200-nm-thick
LTO layer for passivation. After opening contact windows for
piezoresistors in this passivation LTO layer, a 0.5- m-thick
nickel layer was sputtered and patterned to form a Wheatstone
bridge circuit by connecting the four piezoresistors [Fig. 1(b)].
Finally, the poly-SiC diaphragms were realized by KOH etching
from the backside of the (100) silicon wafer using the LPCVD
silicon nitride film on the back side as etch mask [Fig. 1(c)].
The back side KOH etch self terminates on the 10- m-thick
poly-SiC layer since SiC is essentially inert to KOH at the
typical bulk micromachining wet etch temperatures.
B. Pressure Sensors With 3C-SiC Piezoresistors and Silicon
Diaphragms
Fig. 3 shows cross-sectional schematic diagrams of the
fabrication process for this embodiment. The 3C SiC/SiO /Si
substrate used to realize this embodiment is fabricated as
follows (a schematic overview of this substrate fabrication
process, as well as additional details are presented elsewhere
[10]). Substrate fabrication begins with heteroepitaxial growth
of a 0.5- m-thick single-crystalline 3C-SiC film by APCVD on
a 100-mm-diameter silicon “handle” wafer ( 550 m thick)
using SiH and C H as the source gases and hydrogen as the
carrier gas. A two-step process described elsewhere [9] was
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 6, NO. 2, APRIL 2006
used to grow the 3C-SiC film. The as-grown 3C-SiC films
are unintentionally nitrogen doped n-type; therefore, inten-
tional doping was not performed. Following 3C-SiC growth,
a polysilicon film was deposited on the 3C-SiC surface and
then thermally oxidized until completely consumed to form a
1- m-thick SiO film on the top of 3C-SiC surface. In addi-
tion, another 0.5- m-thick thermal SiO film was grown on a
different silicon “device” wafer. The SiO surfaces on both the
handle and device wafers were then polished by chemical-me-
chanical polishing to a mirror finish. In order to overcome the
characteristic handle wafer warpage caused by the thermal
mismatch between 3C-SiC and Si after SiC film growth, the
silicon handle wafer was intentionally thinned to 250 m using
backside lapping and polishing followed by KOH etching to
produce a more compliant substrate for wafer bonding. After
chemical cleaning of the SiO surfaces, the handle wafer was
bonded to the device wafer, which was held during the process
by a vacuum chuck. The bonded pair was annealed at 1100 C
for 1 h to form a strong SiO to SiO fusion bond [Fig. 3(a)].
The handle wafer was then etched away in KOH leaving the
exposed 3C-SiC film on the Si device wafer, but electrically
isolated from the diaphragm by a 1.5-mm-thick SiO layer. The
3C SiC/SiO /Si substrate was then used for the fabrication of
the pressure sensor. The bonding and etch back areal yield was
75% to 85%, as shown in the optical photo in Fig. 4.
Since the piezoresistive effect in semiconductors is highly
anisotropic and exhibits a dependence on the dopant type,
dopant concentration, and crystal orientation, the dependence
on crystal orientation requires that the wafers be bonded with
proper alignment to realize piezoresistors with maximum stress
sensitivity. Similar to n-type silicon, n-type SiC has its largest
piezoresistive coefficient along the directions [11]. In
order to obtain [100] oriented 3C-SiC piezoresistors that are po-
sitioned perpendicular or parallel to the anisotropically-etched
[110] oriented silicon diaphragm edges, it was necessary to
bond the handle and device wafers with their primary flats
oriented at a 45 angle with respect to each other, as shown in
Fig. 5.
The same five masks and, essentially, the same process in
Section III-A was used for the pressure sensor fabrication. The
3C-SiC film was patterned into piezoresistors using reactive ion
etching (RIE). A 0.5- m-thick sputtered Al film was used as the
RIE etch mask and patterned by standard photolithography and
wet chemical etch. A mixture of CHF O He gases was used
in the SiC RIE step. After realizing the piezoresistors, the Al
WU et al.: FABRICATION AND TESTING OF BULK MICROMACHINED SILICON CARBIDE PIEZORESISTIVE PRESSURE SENSORS 319

Fig. 3. Cross-sectional schematic diagrams describing the fabrication process for pressure sensors with single-crystalline 3C-SiC piezoresistors and silicon
diaphragms: (a) after wafer bonding, (b) after metallization, and (c) after diaphragm fabrication.

Fig. 5. Plan-view schematic showing the relative orientation of the bonded

0
Fig. 4. Photograph of a 3C SiC/SiO /Si substrate fabricated by epitaxial
3C-SiC growth, wafer bonding, and etch back.
etch mask was removed and a 200-nm-thick LTO film was de-
posited for passivation of the piezoresistors. Contact windows
were then opened in the passivation LTO to expose the piezore-
sistors. Due to a poor etch selectivity of SiC/SiO in the RIE
process, a large overetch in the underneath SiO layer resulted
during patterning of the piezoresistors and caused the confor-
mity problems in using the sputtered Ni for interconnections. As
a result, Al, which is softer than Ni, was used in the embodiment,
wafers for the sensors in Fig. 3.
even though it is not a suitable high-temperature metal for long
term use. However, it does not affect the ability to evaluate the
3C-SiC film for its piezoresistive effect. The overetch issue can
be overcome with additional process development to allow Ni
metallization for application sensors. A 0.5- m-thick Al layer
was sputtered, patterned, and etched to create a Wheatstone
bridge circuit by connecting the four piezoresistors [Fig. 3(b)].
Finally, a timed-etch process was used to form 15- m-thick sil-
icon diaphragms of the correct size [Fig. 3(c)]. In order to utilize
the same five masks in this pressure sensor fabrication, it should
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be noted that the starting silicon substrate (the device wafer) is
540 , which is 15 thicker than those used in the previous em-
bodiment in order to have similar sensor diaphragm sizes.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL
The performance of the sensors was characterized at room
and elevated temperatures (i.e., up to 450 C). High-tempera-
ture testing was performed in a specially constructed heating
chamber described in detail elsewhere [12]. The sensor chips
were mounted with high-temperature cement onto a stain-
less steel chuck that could be pressurized and de-pressurized
through a 1-mm-diameter hole located at its center. The chuck
was positioned on a boron nitride heater and was connected
to a compressed air supply via a pressure manifold. The flow
of air through the manifold was controlled by a needle valve,
and air pressure applied to the chuck was measured by a sensor
positioned on the manifold. Argon was used as the ambient
in the chamber to prevent oxidation of the contacts at high
temperatures. High-temperature manipulators with tungsten
carbide probes were utilized for contacting the contact pads on
the chip. A DC voltage of 10 V was used as the supply to the
resistor bridge.
V. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
A. Pressure Sensors With Poly-SiC Piezoresistors and
Diaphragms
In this embodiment, three different deposition temperatures
and doping levels were explored for the 0.5- m-thick poly-SiC
films comprising the piezoresistors per Section III-A. In all
cases, 10- m-thick poly-SiC deposited was used for sensor di-
aphragm. Table I summarizes the deposition conditions and the
testing results for the three different poly-SiC piezoresistors.
In the first prototype, poly-SiC piezoresistors were fabricated
from films deposited at 1050 C with a phosphine gas flow rate
of 180 sccm. The average resistivity of polycrystalline SiC films
was 1.34 cm. The estimated gauge factor for these poly-SiC
piezoresistors was about 0.4. As shown Fig. 6, the change
in resistance as a function of temperature for these poly-SiC
piezoresistors decreases with increasing temperature. The tem-
perature coefficient of resistance (TCR) is C at 25 C
and decreases to C at 450 C. A typical trace of
output voltage versus applied pressure at room temperature from
a m diaphragm sensor is shown in Fig. 7. The sen-
sitivity is approximately 12- V/V psi at room temperature and
the end-point nonlinearity is 8.3% of the full scale output (FSO).
The load-deflection behavior of a square diaphragm can be
described approximately as [13]
(1)
where is an applied pressure, is Young’s modulus, is
the diaphragm thickness, is half of the edge length of the di-
aphragm, is the in-plane Poisson’s ratio, is the diaphragm
center deflection, and is the film residual stress. Under an
applied pressure, the first two terms on the right hand side of
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 6, NO. 2, APRIL 2006
Fig. 6. Percentage change of resistance versus temperature for poly-SiC
piezoresistors deposited at 1050 C with a phosphine flow rate of 180 sccm.
the equation show a linear response in the membrane deflec-
tion, while the third is nonlinear. This mechanical nonlinearity
can contribute to the final nonlinearity observed in the piezore-
sistive pressure sensor response. In the meantime, the maximum
stress occurs at the center of diaphragm edges [14]
(2)
and is proportional to the applied pressure and the square of
. For poly-SiC films used in the pressure sensors in this
paper, the residual stress and Young’s modulus are 100 MPa
and 308 GPa, respectively [15]. Poisson’s ratio, , for poly-SiC
is estimated to be 0.168 [16]. For a m size and
10- m-thick poly-SiC diaphragm under a pressure of 55 psi,
the estimated nonlinearity from the mechanical response is
about 3.3%, which is caused by pressure loading beyond the
small deflection regime . However, this estimate
is smaller than what has been measured. An additional source
of nonlinearity in the piezoresistive pressure sensor with the
full Wheatstone bridge is from piezoresistor positions deviating
from the diaphragm edge location, causing an imbalance in
the sensitivities of the different resistors [17]. Ideally, the
sensors were designed to have all resistors located at the same
position with respect to each diaphragm edge location. Varia-
tions in substrate thickness and back-side alignment accuracy
in defining the diaphragm etch mask leads to piezoresistor
position inaccuracy.
The second prototype used piezoresistors made from
poly-SiC films deposited at 1280 C with a phosphine gas
flow rate of 90 sccm. As expected, the average resistivity of
the film was higher (4.16 cm); however, the gauge factor
in this case was only slightly improved at about 1.8. For
the same m diaphragm sensors, the maximum
output voltage was 9.3 mV for the supply voltage of 10 V. The
sensitivity is approximately 16.9- V/V psi, and the end-point
nonlinearity is 7.1% of FSO. The trend of resistance decrease
with temperature increase was similar to that in the first pro-
totype. The TCR is C at 25 C and decreases to
C at 450 C.
In the third prototype, the poly-SiC piezoresistors were
fabricated from films deposited at 1280 C with no phosphine
WU et al.: FABRICATION AND TESTING OF BULK MICROMACHINED SILICON CARBIDE PIEZORESISTIVE PRESSURE SENSORS
Fig. 7. Output voltage versus pressure at room temperature for a 750
were fabricated from doped poly-SiC films in Fig. 6.
gas flow. The average resistivity of these films was 8.33 cm
due to the presence of unintentional nitrogen doping. The gauge
factor was still poor at about 2.1. For the same m grain boundaries on the piezoresistive effect [18]. In general, the
diaphragm sensors, the maximum output voltage was 11.5 mV,
for a supply voltage of 10V. The sensitivity was approximately
20.9- V/V psi, and the end-point nonlinearity was 7.0% of
FSO. The trend of resistance decrease with temperature in-
crease was similar to those of the first and second prototypes.
The TCR was C at 25 C and C at 450 C.
Because of the poor gauge factors in all three polycrystalline
SiC piezoresistors, no testing was conducted to evaluate the
sensor performance at higher temperatures.
The dependence of the piezoresistive effect in poly-SiC on
crystal orientation, doping type, and doping level has been
studied by several other groups [18], [19]. The gauge factors
observed from these studies range from 2.5 to 10. Strass,
et al. [18] characterized the piezoresistive effect of updoped,
nitrogen, and boron doped polycrystalline 3C-SiC films and
found only positive gauge factors, but also observed negative
gauge factors in single-crystalline n-type 3C-SiC films. Homma
et al. [19] studied the piezoresistive effect in PECVD p-type
3C-SiC films with no preferred orientation and found the gauge
factor to be about 6. In our work, all three poly-SiC piezore-
sistors are n-type (i.e., phosphorus for the first two prototypes
and nitrogen for the third) and have negative gauge factors with
significantly smaller absolute values.
The microstructures of poly-SiC films deposited by APCVD
have been reported elsewhere [12] and showed enlarged grain
size and an enhancement in the preferred orientation of the films
with increasing deposition temperatures. The poly-SiC films de-
posited at 1280 C show a (111) preferred crystalline orienta-
tion on the substrates, while the films deposited at 1050 C show
a random oriented fine-grain structure. As should be expected,
the gauge factor increases with increasing the deposition tem-
perature through the enlargement of grain size and crystal ori-
entation enhancement. In general, the three films studied here
are consistent with expected trends from microstructure and
resistivity.
321
2 750 m diaphragm pressure sensor with poly-SiC piezoresistors. The piezoresistors
The experimental observation of small gauge factors in the
poly-SiC films can be explained based on the influence of the
total resistance of polycrystalline materials is a function of resis-
tances from grain boundaries and grains. In addition, the gauge
factor in polycrystalline materials is affected by the piezore-
sistive effects of both grain boundaries and grains. At higher
doping levels and smaller grain sizes, the piezoresistive effect
can be dominated by the grain boundary effects. Unfortunately,
there is a lack of understanding in the literature regarding the
dependence of the piezoresistive effect on grain boundary char-
acteristics resulting from deposition and doping conditions. Per-
haps different doping types influence the properties of the grain
boundaries differently. This could explain why negative gauge
factors were observed in this work in contrast to work by others
as noted above. However, further research will be needed to
verify the cause.
B. Pressure Sensors With 3C-SiC Piezoresistors and Silicon
Diaphragms
Single-crystalline 3C-SiC piezoresistors were fabricated
using 0.5- m-thick undoped monocrystalline films as de-
scribed in Sectrion III-B. These films are unintentionally
nitrogen (n-type) doped, which has its largest piezoresistive
coefficient along the [100] direction. With a 45 rotation of the
bonded wafers as described in Section III-B, single-crystalline
3C-SiC pressure sensors can have [100] oriented piezoresistors
either parallel or perpendicular to the [110] oriented diaphragm
edges (Fig. 4). Hence, sensors made from this 45 bonded
wafer have much higher sensitivity than those made without
rotation in wafer bonding [10]. The magnitude of the gauge
factor was found to be about 18 for the 3C-SiC piezoresistors
along the [100] direction, which is in close agreement with
strain gauge measurement using cantilever beams [20]. The
gauge factor decreases with increasing temperature and is only
7 at 400 C.
Two different pressure sensor piezoresistor position config-
urations were designed and tested in this work. One configu-
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Fig. 8. Optical photos of two pressure sensors with 3C-SiC piezoresistors
having: (a) four resistors placed on the diaphragm edges and (b) two resistors
on the diaphragm edges and the other two at the center of the diaphragm.
In both cases, the resistors are connected in a Wheatstone bridge.
ration relies on placing the bridge piezoresistors near the di-
aphragm edges, two parallel to their corresponding edges and
two perpendicular. An optical micrograph of this sensor design
is shown in Fig. 8(a). The second configuration relies on two
piezoresistors near the edges of the diaphragm and oriented per-
pendicular to their corresponding edges and the other two right
at the center of the membrane as shown in Fig. 8(b). In latter
configuration, higher sensitivity is expected because two of the
piezoresistors experience compressive stresses, while the other
two tensile stresses.
In the first configuration [Fig. 8(a)], output voltage versus ap-
plied pressure for a m diaphragm sensor at room
and elevated temperatures is shown in Fig. 9. The sensitivity
of the sensor decreases with increasing temperature, changing
from 101.5- V/V psi at room temperature to 53.4- V/V psi at
385 C. The end-point nonlinearity is 4.1% of FSO. Using (1)
and (2), the m size and 15- m-thick Si diaphragm
is estimated to exhibit a mechanical nonlinearity of 1.4% under a
pressure of 72 psi. A resistance decrease with increasing temper-
ature was also observed in these sensors (see Fig. 10). The TCR
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 6, NO. 2, APRIL 2006
2
Fig. 9. Output voltage versus pressure and temperature for a 750 750 m
diaphragm pressure sensor with single-crystalline 3C-SiC piezoresistors
configured as in Fig. 8(a).
Fig. 10. Percentage change of resistance versus temperature for 3C-SiC
piezoresistors.
is about C at 25 C and decreases to C at
450 C.
In the second configuration [Fig. 8(b)], for a m
diaphragm sensor, the sensitivity is 177.6- V/V psi at room
temperature. The high-temperature performance of the sen-
sors was also characterized and shows a sensitivity decrease
with increasing temperature. The sensitivity is reduced to
63.1- V/V psi at 400 C (see Fig. 11). However, the output
voltage versus pressure has better nonlinearity and is 1.7% of
FSO, which is closer to the estimated nonlinearity from the
mechanical response. By positioning two piezoresistors right at
the center of the membrane, the bridge misalignment effect is
less pronounced.
The measured gauge factor of 18 along the [100] direc-
tion for single crystalline 3C-SiC (100) films is somewhat
smaller than the previous reported results [4], [11]. Less strain
sensitivity in single-crystalline 3C-SiC films may be related
to its crystalline quality. The thickness of 3C-SiC film used
as piezoresistors in this work is only 0.5 m, as compared to
2 m or more used in the referenced work. A high density of
WU et al.: FABRICATION AND TESTING OF BULK MICROMACHINED SILICON CARBIDE PIEZORESISTIVE PRESSURE SENSORS
Fig. 11. Output voltage versus pressure for a 750
pressure sensor with single-crystalline 3C-SiC piezoresistors configured as in
Fig. 8(b).
323
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[10] C. H. Wu, S. Stefanescu, H. I. Kuo, C. A. Zorman, and M. Mehregany,
“Fabrication and testing of single crystalline 3C-SiC piezoresistive pres-
2750 m diaphragm
sure sensors,” in Proc. Transducers, 2001, pp. 514–517.
[11] J. S. Shor, D. Goldstein, and A. D. Kurtz, “Characterization of n-type
crystalline defects near the SiC/Si interface has usually been
observed in single-crystalline 3C-SiC films grown by CVD.
The density of these planar defects tends to decrease as the film
thickness increases [9]. It is presumed that a thinner film used
in this work may have a higher density of defects, which would
impair the stain sensitivity comparatively.
VI. CONCLUSION
This work explores the development of pressure sensors
 -SiC as a Piezoresistor,” IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, vol. 40, no. 6,
pp. 1093–1099, Dec. 1993.
[12] C. H. Wu, “Growth and Characterization of Silicon Carbide for MEMS
pressure Sensors,” Ph.D. dissertation, Dept. Mater. Sci. Eng., Case
Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, OH, Jan. 2001.
[13] M. Elwenspoek and R. Widgerink, Mechanical Microsensors. New
York: Springer-Verlag, 2001, pp. 82–83.
[14] S. M. Sze, Semiconductor Sensors. New York: Wiley, 1997.
[15] J. S. Mitchell, “Characterization of Mechanical Properties of Cubic Sil-
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[16] W. R. L. Lambrecht, B. Segall, M. Methfessel, and W. van Schilfgarrde,
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based on poly-SiC and 3C-SiC piezoresistors. In the former,
the sensor diaphragm is also made of poly-SiC, while in the
latter the sensor diaphragm is made of (100) silicon. In both
cases, the diaphragms are fabricated by bulk etching of the
(100) silicon substrate from the back side. While the poly-SiC
technology eliminated the need for wafer bonding present in
the 3C-SiC technology, the gauge factors of the corresponding
films were quite inferior. The best gauge factor for the poly-SiC
films was 2.1 at room temperature. The 3C-SiC piezoresistors
showed gauge factors of about 18 in the [100] direction at
room temperature. The gauge factor was compromised with
increasing operating temperature and dropped to 7 at 400 C.
REFERENCES
[1] M. Mehregany, C. A. Zorman, N. Rajan, and C. H. Wu, “Silicon car-
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1594–1610, Aug. 1998.
[2] D. Gao, M. B. J. Wijesundara, C. Carraro, R. T. Howe, and R.
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[4] R. Zeirmann, J. von Berg, W. Reichert, E. Obermeier, M. Eickhoff, and
on the piezoresistive effect of  -SiC between RT and 450 C measured
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[19] T. Homma, K. Kamimura, H. Y. Cai, and Y. Onuma, “Preparation of
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[20] H. I. Kuo, C. A. Zorman, and M. Mehregany, “Fabrication and testing
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strate,” in Proc. Transducers, 2003, pp. 742–745.
Chien-Hung Wu (M’01) received the B.S. degree in
materials engineering from the National Cheng-Kung
University, Taiwan, R.O.C., in 1991, and the M.S. and
Ph.D. degrees in materials science and engineering
from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland,
OH, in 1995 and 2001, respectively.
He joined Movaz Networks, Inc., as a Technical
Staff Member of the Advanced Optical Technology
Group, working on the development of 3-D MEMS
switches for optical networks. At the end of 2001, he
joined FiberLead, Inc. (now FLX Micro, Inc.), Cleve-
land, as Senior R&D Engineer, working on the development of 2-D fiber array
packages based on micromachining techniques and SiC MEMS. He was pro-
moted to Director of Process Engineering in 2003 and served as the key role
in leading the development of advanced SiC material for novel MEMS devices.
He has worked for more than ten years on the research and development of epi-
taxial growth, film deposition, and characterization of silicon carbide (SiC), as
G. Krotz, “A high temperature pressure sensor with  -SiC piezoresistors well as micromachining and microfabrication technologies for MEMS devices
on SOI substrates,” in Proc. Int. Conf. Solid State Sensors and Actuators, made from SiC and other wideband gap semiconductors. He has published over
1997, pp. 1411–1414. 20 technical papers.
324
Christian A. Zorman received the B.S. degree
(cum laude) in physics and the B.A. degree (cum
laude) in economics from The Ohio State Univer-
sity, Columbus, in 1988, and the M.S. and Ph.D.
degrees in physics from Case Western Reserve
University (CWRU), Cleveland, OH, in 1991 and
1994, respectively. His doctoral research involved
an investigation of the secondary electron emission
properties of CVD diamond films for vacuum
electronics.
He joined the MEMS program at CWRU in 1994
as a Research Associate and immediately began working in the SiC MEMS area.
He was promoted to Senior Research Associate in 1997 and Researcher in 2000.
In addition to his research positions within CWRU, he has held appointments
as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and
Computer Science and Interim Administrative Director of the Microfabrication
Laboratory. He is currently an Associate Professor of electrical engineering and
computer science at CWRU. He has been instrumental in the construction of AP
and LPCVD reactors for SiC thin films and has led the development of recipes
for the growth of single and polycrystalline 3C-SiC films for micromachined
sensors and actuators. In addition to the development of novel bulk and surface
micromachining techniques for SiC, he was a key contributor to the development
of novel polishing, wafer bonding, and low-defect density growth processes for
SiC. He has published over 120 technical papers, five book chapters, and has
taught several short courses on SiC for MEMS. His current research interests
include the development of SiC for NEMS.
Prof. Zorman is a past Chairman of the MEMS Technical Group in the Amer-
ican Vacuum Society and is currently serving as Co-Chairman.
IEEE SENSORS JOURNAL, VOL. 6, NO. 2, APRIL 2006
Mehran Mehregany (SM’89) received the B.S. de-
gree in electrical engineering from the University of
Missouri, Rolla, in 1984, and the M.S. and Ph.D. de-
grees in electrical engineering from the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, in 1986 and
1990, respectively.
From 1986 to 1990, he was a Consultant to the
Robotic Systems Research Department, AT&T Bell
Laboratories, where he was a key contributor to
ground-breaking research in MEMS. In 1990, he
joined the Department of Electrical Engineering and
Applied Physics, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Cleveland, OH,
as an Assistant Professor. He was awarded the Nord Assistant Professorship in
1991, promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in July 1994, and promoted
to Full Professor in July 1997. He held the George S. Dively Professor of
Engineering endowed Chair from January 1998 until July 2000, when he
was appointed the Goodrich Professor of Engineering Innovation. He served
as the Director of the MEMS Research Center at CWRU from July 1995
until December 2002. Since January 2003, he has served as Chairman of the
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at CWRU. He is
well known for his research in the area of MEMS, and his work has been
widely covered by domestic and foreign media. He has authored over 250 pub-
lications and holds 15 U.S. patents. He is the Founder/Co-Founder of several
technology companies, including Advanced Micromachines Incorporated (now
part of The Goodrich Corporation), FLX Micro, Inc. (www.flxmicro.com), and
NineSigma, Inc. (www.ninesigma.com). His research interests are in MEMS
and nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), including sensors, actuators,
micromachining, and microfabrication technologies. His additional specialized
interest centers on developing silicon carbide as an enabling material for
MEMS and NEMS, particularly for applications in harsh environments.
Prof. Mehregany is the recipient of a number of awards/honors. He served
as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering
from January 1996 to December 1997 and is Assistant-to-the-President of the
Transducers Research Foundation.