MEMS

M2 AEI
Module 1
Microelectronics and Microsystems
• Microelectronics is concerned with the design, analysis, growth, and fabrication
of micron/sub-micron feature length devices
• The invention of the transistor and the integrated circuit marked the genesis of
microelectronics and set the stage for the unprecedented technological advances
of the 20th century, which impacted virtually every aspect of modern life.
• Indeed, it is said that no invention in the history of humanity has so quickly
spread throughout the world, or so profoundly pervaded so many aspects of
human existence as the microprocessor.
• The field of microelectronics has enabled such life-altering breakthroughs as
implantable cardiac pacemakers, personal computers, wireless cellular
telephones, optoelectronic-fiber networks, communication satellites and the
Internet.
• Microelectronics fabrication created a solid technology infrastructure available for
MEMS
• Potential for integration of devices with IC circuitry
• Batch processing technology implies low cost and high volume production
• Available cutting edge IC processing equipment
• Microelectronics involve integrated circuits which are two dimensional and confined to
silicon die surface
• Microsystems involves moving parts whereas microelectronics does not have moving parts
• Microsystems involve complicated geometry in three dimensions
• Integrated circuits are isolated from surroundings once they are packaged
• The sensing elements in microsystems are required to be in contact with the surroundings even
after packaging. So Packaging will be difficult (hermetic sealing)
• Manufacturing and packaging of microelectronics are mature technologies with well documented
industry standards
• The production of microsystems is far from maturity. Packaging of microsystems is at its infant
stage
• Microsystems use more materials than microelectronics
• Besides silicon, quartz and GaAs is used as substrates
• Uses unconventional materials : Au, quartz,polyimide, ceramics, polymers etc
• Uses Unconventional Process – DRIE ( 100 micron etching), thick deposition
( 10 micron), wafer level bonding, electroplating, moulding, releasing of
suspended structures
• Device specific processes
• Commercial risk due to cost and smaller market
• Development time and market are critical
• Continuous engagement between designers and foundry process designers
• Open discussion between customer and foundry leads to realistic assessment
of the product
• Cost effective packaging and robust reliability are two critical factors for
successful commercialization of MEMS and microsystems.
• While packaging contributes to the effective production cost of MEMS
devices, reliability addresses consumer's confidence in and expectation
on sustainable performance of the products.
• There are a number of factors that contribute to the reliability of MEMS;
• packaging, in particular,
• in bonding and sealing,
• material characterization relating to operating and environmental
conditions,
• credible design considerations,
• the techniques for mitigating intrinsic stresses/strains induced by
fabrications.
 MEMS and Microsystems
• Overview of MEMS and Microsystems
• MEMS & Microsystems
• What is MEMS?
• Abbreviation of “MicroElectro Mechanical System”.
• Contain components of sizes in 1 micrometer (μm) to 1 millimeter
(mm).
• Use the lithographic and other microfabrication technologies to
create miniaturized sensors, actuators, and structures.
• In fabrication processes, the addition, subtraction, modification,
and patterning of materials are typically done using techniques
originally developed for the integrated circuit industry.
• Two principal components of MEMS:
• A sensing or actuating element and a signal transduction unit.
MEMS as a microsensor:
Microsensor
• Example: a pressure sensor
• - Input signal: pressure
• - Microsensing element: a silicon diaphragm
• - Transduction unit: piezoresistors (for resistance change), plus a
Wheatstone bridge circuit
• - Output signal: voltage change
 an aneroid pressure sensor:
— The basic operating principle is to couple the pressure to-be
measured to one surface of a membrane and to measure its deflection
(knowing the pressure-to- deflection transfer function).

Aneroid gauges are based on a metallic pressure-sensing element that

flexes elastically under the effect of a pressure difference across the
element. "Aneroid" means "without fluid", and the term originally
distinguished these gauges from the hydrostatic gauges
• Absolute pressure is zero-referenced against a perfect
vacuum – measured relative to perfect vacuum - so it is equal to
gauge pressure plus atmospheric pressure.
• Gauge pressure is zero-referenced against ambient air
pressure, so it is equal to absolute pressure minus atmospheric
pressure.
• Differential pressure is the difference in pressure between two
points.
Microactuators
• Microactuators are based on three-dimensional mechanical structures
with very small dimensions which are produced with the help of
lithographic procedures and nonisotropic etching techniques
• The principles of force generation are bimetal effect, piezo effect, shape
memory effect and electrostatic forces.
• Characteristic of microactuators is the fact that the mechanism of force
generation is integrated monolithically.
• With the down scaling of the actuator dimensions from the macro-range
to the micro-range, the actuator forces decrease.
• When m is the reduction ratio of a mechanical structure, the
electromagnetic forces are theoretically reduced by the ratio of up to m4
• Pneumatic, hydraulic, and surface tension forces behave in a more
favourable way because they decrease only by m to m2.
• Electrostatic forces decrease with m2
 MEMS as a microactuator:
• Micromanipulation of micro parts in assembly, biological cells in
micro surgery and micro particles in material science is of great
interest to scientists and engineers.
• This resulted in innovation of micro tools such as MEMS based micro
gripper which is a typical MEMS device used to grip, hold and
transport micro-objects from one place to another.
• There are many types of micro grippers based on actuation systems
such as thermal, piezoelectric, electrostatic, electromagnetic, vacuum
type and mechanical.
• The general requirement of a microgripper is that it should be able to
pick up and release a component at a specified position.
 Microsystems:
 A microsystem is an engineering system that contains MEMS components
that are designed to perform specific engineering fu nctions.
 3 components (Madou, 1997): micro sensors, actuators, and a processing
unit.
Example: an airbag deployment system
• Microfabrication - Definition
• The technologies used to produce minute components is called microfabrication technologies, or
micromachining.

• Material removal & deposition

• Removal: The 3-dimensional microstructures can be produced by removing part of the base
material by a physical or chemical etching process.
• Deposition: Thin-film deposition techniques are used to build layers of materials on the base
material.

• Evolution
• The significant amount of microfabrication processes were developed for the microelectronics
industry in the past 50 years.
• - In 1947, transistors were invented.
• - In 1955, a monolithic circuit (i.e., using germanium or silicon to build an entire circuit) was
produced at RCA.
• - In 1958, the first IC was produced by Jack Kilby at Texas Instruments.
• - Today, ultra large scale integration (ULSI) can contain 10 million transistors and capacitors on a
chip.
 5 engineering areas:
• I. Mechanical engineering
• II. Electrical engineering
• III. Chemical engineering
• IV. Material engineering
• V. Industrial engineering
• Microsystems and Miniaturization
• Benefits of miniaturization:
• I. Tend to move faster.
• II. Encounter few problems in thermal distortion and vibration.
• III. Make them more suitable for applications in medicine and key hole
surgery and in microelectronic assemblies.
• IV. Desirable in satellites and spacecraft engineering.
• V. Suitable for telecommunication systems (low losses)
Examples:
• - Computers: advanced in 50 years from the vacuum-tube technology
to the IC technology. → smaller size, but better performance.
• - Bio-chips: shorter time for disease or virus detection (plus much less
samples required).
Scaling Laws in Miniaturization

• In this era of “think small,” one would intuitively simply scale down
the size of all components to a device to make it small. Unfortunately,
the reality does not work out that way.
• It is true that nothing is there to stop one from down sizing the device
components to make the device small.
• There are, however, serious physical consequences of scaling down
many physical quantities.
• Here we will learn, with selected cases, the scaling laws that will
make engineers aware of both positive and negative physical
consequences of scaling down machines and devices.
• ● Scaling in Geometry
• ● Scaling in Rigid-Body Dynamics
• ● Scaling in Electrostatic Forces
• ● Scaling in Electromagnetic Forces
• ● Scaling in Electricity
• ● Scaling in Fluid Mechanics
• ● Scaling in Heat Transfer
WHY SCALING LAWS?

• Miniaturizing machines and physical systems is an ongoing effort in human

civilization.
• This effort has been intensified in recent years as market demands for: Intelligent,
Robust, Multi-functional and Low cost consumer products has become more
strong than ever.
• The only solution to produce these consumer products is to package many
components into the product – making it necessary to miniaturize each individual
components.
• Miniaturization of physical systems is a lot more than just scaling down device
components in sizes.
• Some physical systems either cannot be scaled down favorably, or cannot be
scaled down at all!
• Scaling laws thus become the very first thing that any engineer would do in the
design of MEMS and microsystems
Scaling in Geometry
• Scaling of physical size of objects
• Volume (V) and surface (S) are two physical parameters that are frequently
involved in machine design.
• Volume leads to the mass and weight of device components.
• Volume relates to both mechanical and thermal inertia.
• Thermal inertia is a measure on how fast we can heat or cool a solid.
• It is an important parameter in the design of a thermally actuated device
• Surface is related to pressure and the buoyant forces in fluid mechanics.
• When the physical quantity is to be miniaturized, the design engineer must
weigh the magnitudes of the possible consequences from the reduction on
both the volume and surface of the particular device.
Example on scaling law in geometry of a MEMS device
• The micro mirrors are Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS),
which means that their states are controlled by applying a voltage
between the two electrodes around the mirror arrays. Digital
micromirror devices are used in video projectors and optics and
micromirror devices for light deflection and control.

• Rigid-body dynamics studies the movement of systems of

interconnected bodies under the action of external forces.
Scaling in Rigid Body dynamics
• Micro Intuition
• Linear extrapolation is easy but we are at a loss when considering the
implications that shrinking of length has on surface area to
volume ratios
• Micro intuition can be misleading.
• Our aim is to develop a systematic approach about the likely behavior
of downsized systems. so we do not need to rely on micro intuition
alone.
• Scaling Laws
• They allow us to determine whether physical phenomena will scale
more favorably or will scale poorly.
• Generally, smaller things are less effected by volume dependent
phenomena such as mass and inertia, and are more effected by surface
area dependent phenomena such as contact forces or heat transfer.
As you decrease the size
• Friction > inertia
• Heat dissipation > Heat storage
• Electrostatic force > Magnetic Force
Trimmer’s Vertical Bracket Notation to Represent Scaling law:

For different possible forces (actually most of the forces are within those
situations) he writes:
 L1 
 2
L
F   3  , L : dimension
L 
 4
 L 

 L2 
 1 
L
for a 
F
m
 
 LF L3    0  , a: acceleration
L 
 1 
L 
 

 L1.5 
 1
2 xm L
t
F
   
 ( L1 L3 L F )1 / 2   0.5  , t: time scale
L 
 0
 L 

 L2.5 
P Fx

LF L1
 4 F
  
 1 
L
  0.5  , P/V: power/volume
V tV   3 L 
L  L
2
 
 2 
 L 
 
generated/dissipated
MATERIAL FOR MEMS
Material for MEMS
• Many microsystems use materials such as silicon and gallium arsenide
(GaAs) as sensing or actuating elements.
• These materials are chosen mainly because they are dimensionally
stable and their microfabrication and packaging techniques are well
established in microelectronics.
• However, there are other materials used for MEMS and microsystems
products—such as quartz and Pyrex, polymers and plastics, and
ceramics— that are not commonly used in microelectronics.
• Plastics and polymers are also used extensively in the case of
microsystems
• In semiconductors, the substrate is a single crystal cut in slices from a
larger piece called a wafer. Wafers can be of silicon or other single
crystalline material such as quartz or gallium arsenide.
• The common substrate materials used in MEMS such as silicon(Si),
germanium (Ge), and gallium arsenide (GaAs) all fall in the category of
semiconductors.
• One major reason for using these materials as principal substrate
materials in both microelectronics and microsystems is that these
materials are at the borderline between conductors and insulators, so
they can be made either a conductor or an insulator as needs arise.
• Another reason for using semiconductors is that the fabrication
processes, such as etching, and the equipment required for these
• processes have already been developed for these materials
• There are two types of substrate materials used in microsystems: (1)
active substrate materials and (2) passive substrate materials,
• Active substrate materials are primarily used for sensors and actuators
in a microsystem or other MEMS components
• Typical active substrate materials for microsystems include silicon,
gallium arsenide, germanium, and quartz.
• These materials are selected as active substrates primarily for their
dimensional stability, which is relatively insensitive to environmental
conditions.
• Dimensional stability is a critical requirement for sensors and
actuators with high precision.
Silicon as substrate for MEMS
• Silicon is the most abundant material on earth. However, it almost always exists in compounds with other
elements. Single-crystal silicon is the most widely used substrate material for MEMS and microsystems.
The popularity of silicon for such application is primarily for the following reasons:
• 1. It is mechanically stable and it can be integrated into electronics on the same substrate. Electronics for
signal transduction, such as a p- or n-type piezoresistor, can be readily integrated with the Si substrate.
• 2. Silicon is almost an ideal structural material. It has about the same Young’s modulus as steel (about 2x
10^5 MPa), but is as light as aluminum, with a mass density of about 2.3 g/cm^3.
5

• Materials with a high Young’s modulus can better maintain a linear relationship between applied load
and the induced deformations.
• 3. It has a melting point at 1400°C, which is about twice as high as that of aluminum. This high melting
point makes silicon dimensionally stable even at elevated temperature.
• 4. Its thermal expansion coefficient is about 8 times smaller than that of steel, and is more than 10 times
smaller than that of aluminum.
• 5. Above all, silicon shows virtually no mechanical hysteresis. It is thus an ideal candidate material for
sensors and actuators.
• Moreover, silicon wafers are extremely flat and accept coatings and additional thin-film layers for
building microstructural geometry or conducting electricity.
• 6. There is a greater flexibility in design and manufacture with silicon than with other substrate materials.
Treatments and fabrication processes for silicon substrates are well established and documented.
• Current industry standard on wafer sizes and
• thicknesses are as follows:
• 100 mm (4 in) diameter 500 μm thick
• 150 mm (6 in) diameter 750μ m thick
• 200 mm (8 in) diameter 1 mm thick
• 300 mm (12 in) diameter 750 μm thick
SILICON COMPOUNDS

• Three silicon compounds are often used in microsystems: silicon

dioxide, SiO ; silicon carbide, SiC; and silicon nitride, Si3N4.
2

• We will take a brief look at each of these compounds as to the roles they
play in microsystems.
Silicon Dioxide
• There are three principal uses of silicon oxide in microsystems: (1) as a
thermal and electric insulator
• (2) as a mask in the etching of silicon substrates, and
• (3) as a sacrificial layer in surface micromachining.
• Silicon oxide has much stronger resistance to most etchants than silicon.
Silicon Carbide
• The principal application of silicon carbide (SiC) in microsystems is its dimensional and
chemical stability at high temperatures.
• It has very strong resistance to oxidation even at very high temperatures.
• Thin films of silicon carbide are often deposited over MEMS components to protect them
from extreme temperature.
• Another attraction of using SiC in MEMS is that dry etching with aluminum masks can
easily pattern the thin SiC film.
• The patterned SiC film can further be used as a passivation layer (protective layer) in
micromachining for the underlying silicon substrate, as SiC can resist common etchants
such as KOH and HF.(Hydroflouric acid)
• Silicon carbide is a by-product in the process of producing single crystal silicon boules.
• As silicon exists in the raw materials of carbon (coal, coke, wood chips, etc.), the intense
heating of these materials in the electric arc furnace results in SiC sinking to the bottom
of the crucible.
• Silicon carbide films can be produced by various deposition techniques. Pertinent
thermophysical properties of SiC
• Silicon nitride (Si3N4) has many superior properties that are attractive for
MEMS and microsystems.
• It provides an excellent barrier to diffusion of water and ions such as sodium.
• Its ultra strong resistance to oxidation and many etchants makes it suitable
for masks for deep etching.
• Applications of silicon nitride include optical waveguides, encapsulants to
prevent diffusion of water and other toxic fluids into the substrate.
• It is also used as high-strength electric insulators and ion implantation masks.
• Silicon nitride can be produced from Dichlorosilane and NH3 in the following
reaction:
3SiCl2H2 4 NH3 → Si3N4 6HCl 6H2
• Dichlorosilane, or DCS as it is commonly known, is a chemical compound
with the formula H2SiCl2. In its major use, it is mixed with ammonia (NH3) in
LPCVD chambers to grow silicon nitride in semiconductor processing
Polysilicon
• Silicon in polycrystalline form can be deposited onto silicon substrates by
chemical vapor deposition (CVD)
• It has become a principal material in surface micromachining
• The low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) process is frequently
used for depositing polycrystalline silicon onto silicon substrates.
• The temperature involved in this process is about 600 to 650°C.
• Polysilicon (an abbreviation of polycrystalline silicon) is widely used in the IC
industry for resistors, gates for transistors, thin-film transistors, etc.
• Highly doped polysilicon, (with arsenic and phosphorous for n type or boron
for p type) can drastically reduce the resistivity of polysilicon to produce
conductors and control switches.
• They are thus ideal materials for microresistors as well as easy ohmic contacts.
Gallium Arsenide

• Gallium arsenide (GaAs) is a compound semiconductor.

• It is made of equal numbers of gallium and arsenic atoms. Because it is a compound,
it is more complicated in lattice structure, with atoms of both constituents, and
hence is more difficult to process than silicon.
• GaAs is an excellent material for monolithic integration of electronic and photonic
devices on a single substrate.
• The main reason that GaAs is a prime candidate material for photonic devices is its
high mobility of electrons in comparison to other semiconducting materials
• GaAs has about 7 times higher electron mobility than silicon.
• The high electron mobility in this material means it is easier for electric current to
flow in the material.
• GaAs, being a material with high mobility of electrons, thus can better facilitate the
electric current flow when it is energized by photon sources.
• Gallium arsenide is also a superior thermal insulator, with excellent
dimensional stability at high temperature.
• The negative aspect of this material is its low yield strength. Its yield
strength, at 2700 MPa, is only one-third of that of silicon.
• This makes GaAs less attractive for use as substrates in microsystems.
• Because of its relatively low use in the microelectronics industry, GaAs
is much more expensive than silicon.
Quartz
• Quartz is close to being an ideal material for sensors because of its
near absolute thermal dimensional stability (is a measurement of the
linear dimensional change resulting from exposure to temperature)
• Commercial applications of quartz crystals include wristwatches,
electronic filters, and resonators.
• Quartz is a desirable material in microfluidics applications in
biomedical analyses.
• It is transparent to ultraviolet light, which often is used to detect the
various species in the fluid.
• Quartz is a material that is hard to machine.
• Diamond cutting is a common method, although ultrasonic cutting
has been used for more precise geometric trimming.
• It can be etched chemically by HF/NH4F into the desired shape.
• Quartz wafers up to 75 mm in diameter by 100 m thick are available
commercially.
Polymers for MEMS and Microsystems

• Polymers have become increasingly important materials for MEMS

and microsystems.
• Some of these applications are:
• Photoresist polymers are used to produce masks for creating desired
patterns on substrates by photolithography
• conductive polymers are used as organic substrates for MEMS and
microsystems.
• The ferroelectric polymers, which behave like piezoelectric crystals,
can be used as a source of actuation in microdevices such as those for
micropumping
• Polymers with unique characteristics are used as a coating
substances for capillary tubes to facilitate electro-osmotic flow in
microfluidics
• Thin polymer films are used as electric insulators in microdevices and
as a dielectric substances in microcapacitors.
• Polymers are widely used for electromagnetic interference (EMI) and
radiofrequency interference (RFI) shielding in microsystems.
• Polymers are ideal materials for the encapsulation of microsensors
and packaging of other microsystems.
Piezoelectric crystals
• One of the most commonly used nonsemiconducting materials in MEMS and
microsystems is piezoelectric crystals.
• Piezoelectric crystals are the solids of ceramic compounds that can produce a
voltage when a mechanical force is applied between their faces.
• The reverse situation, that is the application of voltage to the crystal, can also
change its shape. This conversion of mechanical energy to electronic signals
(voltage) and viceversa is unique to this material
• This unique material behavior is called the piezoelectric effect. Jacques and Pierre
Curie discovered the piezoelectric effect in 1880.
• This effect exists in a number of natural crystals such as quartz, tourmaline, and
sodium potassium tartrate, and quartz has been used in electromechanical
transducers for many years.
• There are many other synthesized crystals such as Rochelle salt (NaKC4H4O6-
4H2O), barium titanate (BaTiO3), and lead zirconate titanate (PZT).
• The most common use of the piezoelectric effect is for high voltage
generation through the application of high compressive stress.
• The generated high-voltage field can be used as an impact detonation
device.
• It can also be used to send signals for depth detection in a sonar
system.
• The principal applications of the piezoelectric effect in MEMS and
microsystems, however, are in actuators and dynamic signal
transducers for pressure sensors and accelerometers.
• The piezoelectric effect is also used in pumping mechanisms, and for
microfluidic flows, as well as for inkjet printer heads.
Principle
• For a crystal to exhibit the piezoelectric effect, its structure should
have no center of symmetry.
• A stress applied to such a crystal will alter the separation between the
positive and negative charge sites in each elementary cell, leading to a
net polarization at the crystal surface [Waanders 1991].
• An electric field with voltage potential is thus created in the crystal
because of such polarization.