S7 EC

EC465 MEMS

Prepared by
Aswathy N
Assistant Professor
EC DEPT
Syllabus
• Module 1: MEMS and Microsystems, Review of Mechanical concepts
• Module 2: Flexural beams, Actuation and sensing techniques
• Module 3:Scaling laws in miniaturization
• Module 4: Materials for MEMS, Polymers in MEMs
• Module 5: Overview of Micro- manufacturing, Micro system
packaging
• Module 6: Bonding techniques for MEMS, Overview of MEMS areas
Course Outcomes
CO1: Explain the working principles of micro sensors and actuators
CO2: Apply mechanical concepts in the designing of mechanical
structures in MEMS
CO3: Summarize the application of scaling laws in the design of micro
systems
CO4: Compare various materials used for fabrication of micro systems

CO5: Identify the optimal microfabrication and packaging techniques

for microdevices and systems
CO6: Explain challenges in the design and fabrication of Micro systems
Core Elements- a sensor or actuating element,
a signal transduction unit
Micro sensors sense the existence and intensity of certain physical, chemical or biological quantities such as
temperature,pressure,force,sound,light,nuclear radiation, magnetic flux and chemical compositions

Advantages
• Sensitive and accurate with minimum amount of sample substance.
• Mass produced in batches with large volumes resulting low cost
• Most sssors are disposable so manual cleaning cost and proper
treatment for resuse can be avoided
• Eg. pressure sensor, chemical sensor for detecting toxic gases
• Biomedical sensors- diagnostic analyses
• The transduction unit convert the input power supply into the form
such as voltage for a transducer, which function as the actuating
element.
• Electrostatic forces generated by charged parallel conducting platesor
electrodes separated by a dielectric material .
• Eg. microgripper
Biotesting and Analytical Systeems
• It separate various species in biological samples
Thermal Sensors
• The electrostatic forces generated in parallel charged plates –driving force
• Gripping force provided by
1. normal force (simple),
-disadvantage-excessive space that the electrode occupy in a microgripper
- rarely used
2. by the in-plane forces from pairs of misaligned plates
- commonly used
-Comb drive used in the construction of micrigripper

• The gripping action at the tip of the gripper is initiaied by applying a voltage across
the plate attached to the drive arms and closure arms.
• The electrostatic force generated by these pairs of misaligned plates tend to align
them, causing arms to bend, which closes the extension arms for gripping
• Length of electrodes- W
• Bottom base pitch- W
• Top base plate pitch- W+W/3
• Initially two plates misaligned by W/3
• Bottom plates as stationary and top plate slide over bottom plate in
horizontal plane
• Ratio of poles in the stator to rotor is 3:2
• The air gap between rotor and stator poles – 2um
• Outside diameter of the stator-1ooum
• Length of rotor poles- 20 to 25um
• Problems
• Wear and lubrication of the bearings due to high rotational speed
results in wobbling of the rotors.
Microvalves

• Used in industry- for precision control of gas flow for manufacturing process/
blood flow in an artery
• The heating oftwo electrical resistor rings attached to the top diaphragm cause a
downward movement to close the passage of flow.
• Removal of heat from diaphrams opens the valve again to allow the fluid to flow.
• One electrode of a capacitor – deformable silicon diaphram
• It ia actuated towards top electrode bt aplying voltage across electrodes
• Upward motion of diaphram increases the volume of the pumping chamber and
reduce the pressure in the chamber.
• This pressure reduction cause inlet check valve to open ot allow inflow of fluid

• The cuttoff of the voltage to electrode prompts the diaphram back to initial
position- cause reduction of the volume – increases the pressure of the entrapped
fluid in the chamber.
• The outlet check valve open when the entrapped fluid pressure reaches a
designed valus, fluid is released.
Stress and Strain

• Stress- response to mechanical loading

• Mechanics of materials analysis is based on several basic concepts
such as:
• (a) Newton’s Laws of Motion: - (1st Law): Inertia - (2nd Law): F=ma -
(3rd Law): Reaction Force
 CHAPTER 3
ESSENTIAL ELECTRICAL AND
MECHANICAL CONCEPTS
Conductivity of Semiconductor
• Semiconductor is a material whose
conductivity lies between a perfect insulator
and a perfect conductor.
• The material conductivity controlled by:
1. Impurities
2. Applied electric fields
3. Charge injections
4. Ambient light
5. Temperature variations
 Semiconductor materials

nucleus

Si atom

•Each Si atom has four electrons in its outer orbit.

•Each Si atom in the crystal lattices shares four covalent bonds
with for neighboring atoms.
•The conductivity of a semiconductor material is related to the
concentrations of electrons that can freely move in bulk.
Semiconductor materials
• The bandgap is the statistically minimal energy needed to
excite a covalently bonded electron to become a free charge
carrier. The bandgap of Si at room temperature is 1.11 eV or
1.776x10-19 J.
• A metal conductor consists of metal atoms that are linked to
one another with metallic bonds which are weaker than
covalent bonds. Electrons can readily break free and
participate in current conduction. The bandgap is zero and
that why the metal conductivity is always high.
• An insulator involves much stronger bonding such as ionic
bonding and the bandgap much greater than
semiconductor.
• MEMS semiconductor materials; Si, Ge, Polycrystalline
germanium, silicon germanium, GaAs, GaN and SiC.
Charge carrier concentration
• Two types free charge carriers- electron and holes
• Electron concentration in a semiconductor is
denoted as n (units in electrons/cm3 or cm-3).
• Hole concentration is denoted is p (cm-3).
• Under steady state and thermal equilibrium
condition (no external current and no ambient
light), concentrations of electrons and holes
referred as n0 and p0 respectively.
• Two categories of semiconductor bulk- intrinsic
and extrinsic.
Intrinsic semiconductor material
• A perfect semiconductor material- no impurities
or lattice defects in its crystal structure.
• Electron and holes are created through thermal
or optical excitation.
• When a valence electron receives enough energy,
it is freed from the silicon atom and leaves a hole
behind (electron-hole pair generation).
• The number and concentration of electrons and
holes do not increase without a limit over time.
Free electrons and holes can recombine and give
up energy along the way; recombination
• Under steady state conditions, the generation
and recombination rates are identical.
Intrinsic semiconductor material
• Since the electrons and holes are created in
pairs, n=p.
• For intrinsic material, their common value is
denoted as ni (subscript i means intrinsic)

n  p  ni
•The magnitude of ni is a function of the band
gap and temperature
2 2 2 Eg
2 4 mn * m p * k T 3/ 2

ni  4( 2
) e kT
h
 2 2 2 Eg
2 4 mn * m p * k T 3/ 2

ni  4( 2
) e kT
h

Where;
• mn* - effective mass of electrons
• mp* - effective mass of holes
• k – Boltzmann’s constant
• T – absolute temperature (in degrees Kelvin)
• Eg – the bandgap
• h – Planck’s constant
Extrinsic semiconductor material
• For doped semiconductor, the carriers
concentrations are different from ni
2
n0 p0  ni
•The charge neutrality gives
p0  N d  n0  N a
•By solving the above equation, the concentration
of electrons and holes can be given by below
equation
n0  N d  N a
p0  N a  N d
 Conductivity and resistivity
The total conductivity equals to the summation of conductivities
contributed by the electrons and holes.
1 1 1
  
  n   p q(  n n   p p)
The resistance is the ratio of the voltage drop to the current
load. The total voltage drop is the product of the electric field
and length. The current is the product of the current density
and the cross section (A= w x t)
V EL L  L L E = ρJ
R     s
I JA wt t w w
ρs is the sheet resistivity which equals resistivity divided by the
thickness of the resistor or the thickness of the doped region.
The unit of sheet resistivity is  or /□.
Normal stress and shear stress
 Stress and Strain
• Mechanical stress two types
-normal stress and shear stress
At any chosen cross section, a continuously distributed
force is found acting over the entire area of the section.
The intensity of this force is called the stress.
Stress
• Normal stress is the stress acts in a direction
perpendicular to cross section.
• Stress: force applied to surface
σ= F/A
• measured in N/m2 or Pa
• Normal stress can be compressive (as in the case
of pushing along the rod) or tensile (as in the case
of pulling along the rod)
Strain

• Strain = elongation of the rod.

• Normal strain is the direction of strain is
perpendicular to the cross section of beam.
• Steel bar has orginal length L0. under normal
stress, the rod extended to length of L the
resultant strain in the bar s=l-Lo/Lo= ∆L/Lo
• Denoted by ε

• measured in %, ppm, or microstrain

Longitudinal elongation of a bar under an
applied normal stress

z
F F
Cross
x σx section
y

L + ΔL
In reality, the applied longitudinal stress along the x-axis not only produce a
longitudinal elongation in the direction of the stress, but a reduction in cross
sectional area –nmaterials maintain constant atomic spacing and bulk volume

• The relative dimensional change in the y and Z direction can be expressed

as εx and εy. This material characteristic is called Poissson’s ratio,V which is
the ratio between transverse and longitudinal elongation
• V=|sy/sx|=|sz/sx|
• Stress and strain closely related . Both are proportional to each other
while undergoing smal deformation as per Hooke’s Law
• σ =Es
• E=modulus of elasticity- Young’s modulus- intrinsic property of a
material
• It is constant for a material.[not depend on shape and dimension]
Shear Stress And Strain

• Shear Stress: force applied parallel to surface

τ= F/A
• measured in N/m2 or Pa
• No tendency to elongate or shorten in z.y,z direction
• It produce a change in shape
• Shear Strain: extent of rotational dosplacement
• ratio of deformation to length
γ= ∆X/ L
Unit less
• Shear Modulus:shear stress and strain related by constant
called mpdulus of elasticity, G
G = τ/ γ (N/m2)
- Value of G depends on the material, not shape or dimensions of
an object.
Relationship between E, G and Poisson’s ratio

E
G
2(1  )
General Scalar relation between Tensile stress
and Strain
• The normal strss strain relationship hold for a narrow range of deformation
At low level of applied stress and strain
• - stress vaue inc proportional to strain with constant young’s modulus
• - elastic deformation regime
• - stress removed, return back to orginal shape
Stress exceds a certain level
• - plastic deformation regime
• -stress-strain donot folow linear relation
• -deformation cannot fully recovered after removal of external loading
Relation between tensile stress and
strain
• Two points
- Yield point, Fracture point
• - before Yield point , material is elastic
• - between yield and fracture point material remain plastic
• At fracture point, material suffer from irreversible failure
• Y- co-ordinates of yield point- yield strength
• Y co-ordinates of fracture point- ultimate strength
Material qualitative parameters
• Strong- high yield strength eg: silicon
• Ductility- measure of degree of plastic deformation that has been sustaine at the point of
fracture, no plastic deformation – brittle eg: silicon
• Toughness- ability to absorb energy up to fracture
• Resilience- capacity to absorb energy when it is deformed elastically and recovered
upon unloading
General stress- strain relations
• Strss strain are tensors- expressed in matrix- as vector
• A cube -6 faces- 12 possible shear force component(2 for each face)
• Each pair of shear stress on parallel faces has equal magnitude and
opposite direction for force balance(Newton’s 1st law)
• So shear compone t reduce to 6
• Each component has two subscript letter- 1st letter – normal direction of
facet on which stress is applied
• 2nd letter- the direction of stress component
• Torque balance- two shear stress component acting on two facet but
pointing towrads a common edge have same magnitude
• Shearcompone t reduce to 3
• 6 possible normal stress componet- one for each face
• At equilibrium- normal stress on opposite face are equal with
opposite direction- so normal stess component reduce to 3
• Two subscripts
• Total 3 normal and shear stress
Overview of commonly used mechanical
structures in MEMS
• Beams
Flexural beam bending under simple
loading conditions

• Flexural beam -Used as spring support elements

Contents
• Types of beams and boundary conditions
associated with support
• Distribution of longitudinal stress and strain in a
beam under pure bending
• Calculating the deflection and spring constant of
a beam
BEAMs
• In many engineering structures members are required to resist forces that are applied laterally or transversely to their
axes. These type of members are termed as beam.
• Definition I: A beam is a laterally loaded member, whose cross-sectional dimensions are small as compared to its length.
• Definition II: A beam is nothing simply a bar which is subjected to forces or couples that lie in a plane containing the
longitudnal axis of the bar. The forces are understood to act perpendicular to the longitudnal axis of the bar.
• Definition III: A bar working under bending is generally termed as a beam.

• Materials for Beam:

• The beams may be made from several usable engineering materials such commonly among them are as follows:
• Metal
• Wood
• Concrete
• Plastic
• Geometric forms of Beams:
Classification of Beams:
Beams are classified on the basis of their geometry and the manner in which they are
supported.

Classification I: The classification based on the basis of geometry normally includes features
such as the shape of the X-section and whether the beam is straight or curved.
Classification II: Beams are classified into several groups, depending primarily on the kind
of supports used. But it must be clearly understood why do we need supports. The
supports are required to provide constrainment to the movement of the beams or simply
the supports resists the movements either in particular direction or in rotational direction
or both. On the basis of the support, the beams may be classified as follows:
Cantilever Beam: A beam which is supported on the fixed support is termed as a cantilever
beam: Now let us understand the meaning of a fixed support. Such a support is obtained by
building a beam into a brick wall, casting it into concrete or welding the end of the beam.
Such a support provides both the translational and rotational constrainment to the beam,
therefore the reaction as well as the moments appears, as shown in the figure below
 • Simply Supported Beam: The beams are said to be simply supported
if their supports creates only the translational constraints.

Types of loads acting on beams:

A beam is normally horizontal where as the external loads acting on the beams is
generally in the vertical directions. In order to study the behaviors of beams under
flexural loads. It becomes pertinent that one must be familiar with the various types of
loads acting on the beams as well as their physical manifestations.
A. Concentrated Load: It is a kind of load which is considered to act at a point. By this
we mean that the length of beam over which the force acts is so small in comparison to
its total length that one can model the force as though applied at a point in two
dimensional view of beam. Here in this case, force or load may be made to act on a
beam by a hanger or though other means
Distributed Load: The distributed load is a kind of load which is made to spread over a entire span
of beam or over a particular portion of the beam in some specific manner
Types of beams
• A beam is a structure member subjected to lateral loads, i.e.,
forces or moments having their vectors perpendicular to the
longitudinal axis.
• Consider a 2D beam with movements confined in one plane
• Each point along the length of the beam can have a max of 2
linear degrees of freedom (DOF) and 1 rotational DOF.
• Three possible boundary conditions can exist:
1. The fixed boundary condition restricts both linear DOFs and
the rotational DOF. No movement is allowed at the support.
At the fixed support, a beam can neither translate nor rotate.
2. The guided boundary conditions allow two linear DOFs but
restrict the rotational DOF.
3. The free BC provide for both DOFs and rotation. At a free
end, a point on the beam may translate and rotate.
Possible BC
Various cantilevers of different BC
 BC for the above figure
Label Descriptions
(a) A fixed-free cantilever parallel to the plane of the substrate, with
the free tip capable of moving in a direction normal to the
substrate. Lateral, in-plane movement of the free end would
encounter more significant resistance.
(b) A fixed-fixed beam (bridge) parallel to the substrate plane.
(c) Can be considered a fixed-fixed cantilever parallel to the
substrate plane with a thick and stiff part in the middle. Also
can be considered as two fixed-guided beams jointed in parallel
to support a rigid part.
(d) A fixed-free cantilever with the free end capable of movement
perpendicular to the substrate. Its behavior is similar to that of
cantilever (a).
(e) A fixed free cantilever with the free end capable movement
within the subtrate plane. With its thickness greater than its
width, the movement of the free end in a direction
perpendicular to the substrate plane would encounter greater
resistance.
 BC for the above figure
Label Descriptions
(f) A fixed-fixed beam (bridge)
(g) A fixed-free cantilever carrying a stiff object at the end. The stiff
object does not undergo flexural bending due to increased
thickness.
(h) This beam is similar to beam (c) except for the fabrication
method.
(i) A fixed-free cantilever with folded length. It consists of several
fixed-free beam segments connected in series. The free end of
the folded cantilever is capable of movement in a direction
parallel to the substrate surface. Movement of the free end
perpendicular to the substrate would encounter greater
resistance.
(j) Two fixed-free cantilevers connected in parallel. The combined
spring is stiffer than any single arm.
(k) Four fixed-guided beams connect to a rigid shuttle, which is
allowed to move in the substrate plane but with restricted out-
of-plane translational movement.
Longitudinal strain under pure bending

Bending of a
segment of a beam
under pure
bending.
The distribution of the stress and strain (for
symmetry and material homogeneity beam)

1. The magnitude of stress and strain at any interior

point is linearly proportional to the distance
between this point and the neutral axis.
2. On a given cross section, the max tensile stress
and compressive stress occur at the top and
bottom surfaces of the cantilever.
3. The max tensile stress and the max compressive
stress have the same magnitude.
4. Under pure bending, the magnitude of the max
stress is constant through the length of the beam.
• Under assumption that the magnitude of stress is linearly related to
distance, h and is the highest at the surface (denoted σmax)

 max
M I
t
( )
2

• The term I is called the moments of inertia associated with a

particular cross section. The maximum longitudinal strain and shear
stress component as a function of the total torque M given by below
equation.

Mt
smax 
2 EI
The magnitude of the normal sress at a distance h to neutral plane is denoted as σ(h)
The Normal Force Acting On Any Given Area as dA is dF(h)
The fofrce contribute to moment- so moment equals the force , dF(h) multiplied by the arm between
force and neutral plane.
The area integral of the moment equals the applird bending moment
Deflection of beams

Coordinate system for describing the bending of

cantilever beams.
Deflection of beams
d2y
EI 2  M ( x)
dx
M(x)- the bending moment at the cross section at location
x,and y represents the displacement at location x.
The relationship between x and y can be found by solving
the second-order differential equation. Solving this equation
requires three preparatory steps:
1. Find the moment of inertia with respect to the neutral
axis;
2. Find the state of force and torque along the length of the
beam;
3. Identify BC; 2 BCs are necessary to deterministically find
a solution.
Deflection of beams
• The most common encountered cross section of a
cantilever is a rectangle.
• The moments of inertia with respect to the neutral axis
(cantilevers bend in the direction of the thickness)
wt 3
I
12
•
• The moment of inertia if the cross section of a beam is a
circle given by
R 4
I
4
Finding the spring constant
• Microbeam serve as mechanical springs for sensing and
actuation.
• The stiffness is characterized by the spring constant (or
force constant).
• The mechanical spring constant is the ratio of the applied
force and the resultant displacement

F
km 
x
Finding the spring constant
Finding the spring constant; fixed free
beam

Schematic diagram of a fixed-free cantilever beam spring

Finding the spring constant; fixed free beam

• The free end of the beam will reach a certain bent angle, θ,
with the relationship between F and θ given by

Fl 2

2 EI
• The resulted vertical displacement equals

Fl 3
x
3EI
• The spring constant of the cantilever is therefore
F 3EI Ewt 3
k  3 
x l 4l 3
Calculate spring constant for cases (a) through (g)
Intrinsic Stress

• Thin flim materials experience internal stress under room temperature

and zero external loading conditions- called intrinsic stress
• Eg: polysilicon, silicon nitride
• Magnitudd can be identical or nonuniform throughout the thickness
• Important for MEMS- it causes defoemation, damage in excessive cases ,
affect surface planarity, change stiffness
• It also affect mechanical behavior of membranes
Other common sources are phase change of materials and incorporation of impurity atoms
•If intrinsic stress is unifirmly distributed- zero intrinsic stress, otherwise a gradient is there in the case of stacked
layers

3 ways to mimnimize undesierable intrinsic bending

1. use materials have low intrinsic stress
2. for materials whose intrinsic stress depends on material processing parameters, fine tune the stress by calibrating
and controlling deposition condition
3. use multiple layered structures to compensate stress-induced bending

•Zero stress material- single crystak bulk silicon

•Polymer- low intrinsic stress
•In surface micromachining materials like polysilicon, silicon nitride- intrinsic stress is unavoidable
Besy way to minimize intrinsic stress- bend to an acceptable level
•Add stress compensation layers
•Experimental methods for measuring intrinsic stress
Actuation and Sensing Techniques
• Thermal
• Electrostatic
• Piezoelectric
• Magnectic
Thermal Sensors
Types
• 1. sensors for measuring thermal properties , Temp and heat
• 2. sensors based on thermal transfer principles
• Micro-sensors : -Thermal bimorph -Micro thermocouples -Thermo
resistive sensors
• Microactuators: -Thermal bimorph -Fluid dispensors
Electrostatic sensorsAND ACTUATORS
Basic Principles
• Sensing
• capacitance between moving and fixed plates change as
• distance and position is changed
• media is replaced
• Actuation
• electrostatic force (attraction) between moving and fixed
plates as
• a voltage is applied between them. Interdigitated finger configuration

• Two major configurations

• parallel plate capacitor (out of plane)
• interdigitated fingers - IDT (in plane)
MASS
A d UIUC
Advantages Disadvantages
• Simplicity • High voltage requirement
• Low power • Electronics complexity
• Fast response
Examples
• Parallel Plate Capacitor
• Comb Drive Capacitor

MASS
UIUC
Parallel Plate Capacitor
A d

Fringe electric field

(ignored in first order Q
analysis)
C
V
E  Q / A
Q A
C 
Q
d d
A
• Equations without considering fringe electric field.
• Bymeasuring capacitance value , change of permittivity, A or d can be sensed
• Capacitance change via permittivity used to characterize liquid,air,biological
particles

MASS
UIUC
Forces of Capacitor Actuators
Q 1 1 2
• Stored energy U  CV 2

2 2 C
U 1 C 2
• Force is derivative of energy with F   V
d 2 d
respect to pertinent dimensional
variable Q A
C 
Q
• Plug in the expression for capacitor d d
A
2
U 1 A 2 1 CV
F   V  
d 2d2 2 d
• We arrive at the expression for force
• The upper limit of applied voltage for
actuation is the breakdown voltage of
dielectric media.

MASS
UIUC
Pullin voltage
Piezoelectric sensors and actuators
The electromechanical coupling coefficient ,K is a measure of how much energy is
transferred from electrical to mechanical or vice versa
K2= energy_converted/input_energy
Magnetic actuarors

1. Magnetic field intensity- H-

driving magnetic influence
external to a magnetic
material.
2. Unit A/m
3. Magnetic field density –B-
induced total magnetic field
inside a piece of magnetic
material
4. Unit Tesla or Wb/m2
µ0(H+XH)=µ0µrH
µ0- magnetic permeability of space
µr- relative permeability
M- magnetization
X- susceptability, µr-1
• X>1- paramagnetic
• X<1- diamagnetic
• X>>1- ferromagnetic
Selected principle

• The Lorentz force acting on a single moving charge Q is given by

• F=qv*T
• F= qvBsino, magnitude of force