A REPORT

ON

(MEMS Sensors for Industrial Applications)

BY
Name of the Student Ekansh Nayal

ID No. 2008A3PS143P Prepared in partial fulfilment of the Laboratory Oriented Project (BITS C313)

Discipline EEE

To be submitted to: Dr. B.D. Pant (Scientist G, CEERI Pilani)

BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, PILANI (April 26, 2010)

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I am thankful and express my deepest gratitude to Dr. B.D. Pant, CEERI Pilani for giving me the opportunity of undertaking a project at an institute with an esteemed status in the field of MEMS Sensors. I feel deeply indebted to Dr. Navneet Gupta, our Electronic Devices and Integrated Circuits instructor whose lectures in semiconductor technologies came of a great help. Without his support this project was not possible. Finally, I take this opportunity to extend my deep appreciation to my friends, for all that they meant to me during the crucial times of the completion of this training and project.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
S.NO. CONTENTS PAGE NUMBER
4 5 6-10 11 12-26

1. 2. 3. 3. 4.

Microelectromechanical Systems MEMS basic properties

Materials for MEMS Manufacturing MEMS Manufacturing Technologies:-

5. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Computer Simulation (LabVIEW) of MEMS Resonator Gas Sensor MEMS based Hydrogen Gas Sensors PSPICE modelling of LTCC Gas Sensor Conclusion References

Applications:1. Micromirrors 2. Adaptive Optics 3. Biomedical MEMS 4. Touch-screen Phones 5. Pressure sensors in Automobiles 6. Inkjet Printers

27-31

32-33 34 35

36

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Microelectromechanical systems
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) (also written as micro-electro-mechanical, Microelectromechanical or microelectronic and Microelectromechanical systems) is the technology of very small mechanical devices driven by electricity; it merges at the nano-scale into nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) and nanotechnology. MEMS are also referred to as micro machines (in Japan), or Micro Systems Technology - MST (in Europe). MEMS are separate and distinct from the hypothetical vision of molecular nanotechnology or molecular electronics. MEMS are made up of components between 1 to 100 micrometres in size (i.e. 0.001 to 0.1 mm) and MEMS devices generally range in size from 20 micrometres (20 millionths of a metre) to a millimetre. They usually consist of a central unit that processes data, the microprocessor and several components that interact with the outside such as micro sensors. At these size scales, the standard constructs of classical physics are not always useful. Because of the large surface area to volume ratio of MEMS, surface effects such as electrostatics and wetting dominate volume effects such as inertia or thermal mass. The potential of very small machines was appreciated before the technology existed that could make themsee, for example, Richard Feynman's famous 1959 lecture There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom. MEMS became practical once they could be fabricated using modified semiconductor device fabrication technologies, normally used to make electronics. An early example of a MEMS device is the resonistor an electromechanical monolithic resonator.

Figure1 : The convergence point of electronics, mechanics, physics, chemistry and biology, etc. 4|Page

Materials for MEMS manufacturing

Silicon
Silicon is the material used to create most integrated circuits used in consumer electronics in the modern world. The economies of scale, ready availability of cheap high-quality materials and ability to incorporate electronic functionality make silicon attractive for a wide variety of MEMS applications. Silicon also has significant advantages engendered through its material properties. In single crystal form, silicon is an almost perfect Hookean material, meaning that when it is flexed there is virtually no hysteresis and hence almost no energy dissipation. As well as making for highly repeatable motion, this also makes silicon very reliable as it suffers very little fatigue and can have service lifetimes in the range of billions to trillions of cycles without breaking. The basic techniques for producing all silicon based MEMS devices are deposition of material layers, patterning of these layers by photolithography and then etching to produce the required shapes. Polymers Even though the electronics industry provides an economy of scale for the silicon industry, crystalline silicon is still a complex and relatively expensive material to produce. Polymers on the other hand can be produced in huge volumes, with a great variety of material characteristics. MEMS devices can be made from polymers by processes such as injection molding, embossing or stereolithography and are especially well suited to microfluidic applications such as disposable blood testing cartridges. Metals Metals can also be used to create MEMS elements. While metals do not have some of the advantages displayed by silicon in terms of mechanical properties, when used within their limitations, metals can exhibit very high degrees of reliability. Metals can be deposited by electroplating, evaporation, and sputtering processes. Commonly used metals include gold, nickel, aluminium, copper, chromium, titanium, tungsten, platinum, and silver.

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MEMS basic processes

Deposition processes One of the basic building blocks in MEMS processing is the ability to deposit thin films of material with a thickness anywhere between a few nanometres to about 100 micrometres. Physical deposition There are two types of physical deposition processes. 1. Physical vapor deposition (PVD) Physical vapor deposition consists of a process in which a material is removed from a target, and deposited on a surface. Techniques to do this include the process of sputtering, in which an ion beam liberates atoms from a target, allowing them to move through the intervening space and deposit on the desired substrate, and Evaporation (deposition), in which a material is evaporated from a target using either heat (thermal evaporation) or an electron beam (e-beam evaporation) in a vacuum system. 2. Chemical deposition Chemical deposition techniques include chemical vapor deposition ("CVD"), in which a stream of source gas reacts on the substrate to grow the material desired. This can be further divided into categories depending on the details of the technique, for example, LPCVD (Low Pressure chemical vapor deposition) and PECVD (Plasma Enhanced chemical vapor deposition). Oxide films can also be grown by the technique of thermal oxidation, in which the (typically silicon) wafer is exposed to oxygen and/or steam, to grow a thin surface layer of silicon dioxide. Patterning Patterning in MEMS is the transfer of a pattern into a material. Lithography

Lithography in MEMS context is typically the transfer of a pattern into a photosensitive material by selective exposure to a radiation source such as light. A photosensitive material is a material that experiences a change in its physical properties when exposed to a radiation source. If a photosensitive material is selectively exposed to radiation (e.g. by masking some of the radiation) the pattern

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of the radiation on the material is transferred to the material exposed, as the properties of the exposed and unexposed regions differ. This exposed region can then be removed or treated providing a mask for the underlying substrate. Photolithography is typically used with metal or other thin film deposition, wet and dry etching. Electron beam lithography

Electron beam lithography (often abbreviated as e-beam lithography) is the practice of scanning a beam of electrons in a patterned fashion across a surface covered with a film (called the resist), ("exposing" the resist) and of selectively removing either exposed or non-exposed regions of the resist ("developing"). The purpose, as with photolithography, is to create very small structures in the resist that can subsequently be transferred to the substrate material, often by etching. It was developed for manufacturing integrated circuits, and is also used for creating nanotechnology architectures. The primary advantage of electron beam lithography is that it is one of the ways to beat the diffraction limit of light and make features in the nanometer regime. This form of maskless lithography has found wide usage in photomask-making used in photolithography, low-volume production of semiconductor components, and research & development. The key limitation of electron beam lithography is throughput, i.e., the very long time it takes to expose an entire silicon wafer or glass substrate. A long exposure time leaves the user vulnerable to beam drift or instability which may occur during the exposure. Also, the turn-around time for reworking or re-design is lengthened unnecessarily if the pattern is not being changed the second time.

Ion beam lithography

It is known that focused-ion-beam lithography has the capability of writing extremely fine lines (less than 50 nm line and space has been achieved) without proximity effect. However, because the writing field in ion-beam lithography is quite small, large area patterns must be created by stitching together the small fields. X-ray lithography

X-ray lithography, is a process used in electronic industry to selectively remove parts of a thin film. It uses X-rays to transfer a geometric pattern from a mask to a lightsensitive chemical photoresist, or simply "resist," on the substrate. A series of chemical treatments then engraves the produced pattern into the material underneath the photoresist.
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 Etching processes There are two basic categories of etching processes: wet etching and dry etching. In the former, the material is dissolved when immersed in a chemical solution. In the latter, the material is sputtered or dissolved using reactive ions or a vapor phase etchant.. Wet etching

Wet chemical etching consists in selective removal of material by dipping a substrate into a solution that dissolves it. The chemical nature of this etching process provides a good selectivity, which means the etching rate of the target material is considerably higher than the mask material if selected carefully. Isotropic etching

Etching progresses at the same speed in all directions. Long and narrow holes in a mask will produce v-shaped grooves in the silicon. The surface of these grooves can be atomically smooth if the etch is carried out correctly, with dimensions and angles being extremely accurate. Anisotropic etching

Some single crystal materials, such as silicon, will have different etching rates depending on the crystallographic orientation of the substrate. This is known as anisotropic etching and one of the most common examples is the etching of silicon in KOH (potassium hydroxide), where Si <111> planes etch approximately 100 times slower than other planes (crystallographic orientations). Therefore, etching a rectangular hole in a (100)-Si wafer results in a pyramid shaped etch pit with 54.7 walls, instead of a hole with curved sidewalls as with isotropic etching.

HF etching

Hydrofluoric acid is commonly used as an aqueous etchant for silicon dioxide (SiO2, also known as BOX for SOI), usually in 49% concentrated form, 5:1, 10:1 or 20:1 BOE (buffered oxide etchant) or BHF (Buffered HF). They were first used in medieval times for glass etching. It was used in IC fabrication for patterning the gate oxide until the process step was replaced by RIE. Hydrofluoric acid is considered one of the more dangerous acids in the cleanroom. It penetrates the skin upon contact and it diffuses straight to the bone. Therefore the damage is not felt until it is too late.

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Electrochemical etching

Electrochemical etching (ECE) for dopant-selective removal of silicon is a common method to automate and to selectively control etching. An active p-n diode junction is required, and either type of dopant can be the etch-resistant ("etch-stop") material. Boron is the most common etch-stop dopant. In combination with wet anisotropic etching as described above, ECE has been used successfully for controlling silicon diaphragm thickness in commercial piezoresistive silicon pressure sensors. Selectively doped regions can be created either by implantation, diffusion, or epitaxial deposition of silicon. Dry etching

Xenon difluoride etching Xenon difluoride (XeF2) is a dry vapor phase isotropic etch for silicon originally applied for MEMS in 1995 at University of California, Los Angeles. Primarily used for releasing metal and dielectric structures by undercutting silicon, XeF2 has the advantage of a stiction-free release unlike wet etchants. Its etch selectivity to silicon is very high, allowing it to work with photoresist, SiO2, silicon nitride, and various metals for masking. Its reaction to silicon is "plasmaless", is purely chemical and spontaneous and is often operated in pulsed mode. Models of the etching action are available, and university laboratories and various commercial tools offer solutions using this approach. Reactive ion etching

In reactive ion etching (RIE), the substrate is placed inside a reactor, and several gases are introduced. A plasma is struck in the gas mixture using an RF power source, which breaks the gas molecules into ions. The ions accelerate towards, and react with, the surface of the material being etched, forming another gaseous material. This is known as the chemical part of reactive ion etching. There is also a physical part, which is similar to the sputtering deposition process. If the ions have high enough energy, they can knock atoms out of the material to be etched without a chemical reaction. It is a very complex task to develop dry etch processes that balance chemical and physical etching, since there are many parameters to adjust. By changing the balance it is possible to influence the anisotropy of the etching, since the chemical part is isotropic and the physical part highly anisotropic the combination can form sidewalls that have shapes from rounded to vertical. RIE can be deep (Deep RIE or deep reactive ion etching (DRIE)).

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Deep reactive ion etching

Deep RIE (DRIE) is a special subclass of RIE that is growing in popularity. In this process, etch depths of hundreds of micrometres are achieved with almost vertical sidewalls. The primary technology is based on the so-called "Bosch process", named after the German company Robert Bosch, which filed the original patent, where two different gas compositions alternate in the reactor. Currently there are two variations of the DRIE. The first variation consists of three distinct steps (the Bosch Process as used in the Plasma-Therm tool) while the second variation only consists of two steps (ASE used in the STS tool). In the 1st Variation, the etch cycle is as follows: (i) SF6 isotropic etch; (ii) C4F8 passivation; (iii) SF6 anisoptropic etch for floor cleaning. In the 2nd variation, steps (i) and (iii) are combined. Both variations operate similarly. The C4F8 creates a polymer on the surface of the substrate, and the second gas composition (SF6 and O2) etches the substrate. The polymer is immediately sputtered away by the physical part of the etching, but only on the horizontal surfaces and not the sidewalls. Since the polymer only dissolves very slowly in the chemical part of the etching, it builds up on the sidewalls and protects them from etching. As a result, etching aspect ratios of 50 to 1 can be achieved. The process can easily be used to etch completely through a silicon substrate, and etch rates are 36 times higher than wet etching.

Figure: Deep Reactive Ion Etching

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MEMS manufacturing technologies

1. Bulk micromachining Bulk micromachining is the oldest paradigm of silicon based MEMS. The whole thickness of a silicon wafer is used for building the micro-mechanical structures. Silicon is machined using various etching processes. Anodic bonding of glass plates or additional silicon wafers is used for adding features in the third dimension and for hermetic encapsulation. Bulk micromachining has been essential in enabling high performance pressure sensors and accelerometers that have changed the shape of the sensor industry in the 80's and 90's. 2. Surface micromachining Surface micromachining uses layers deposited on the surface of a substrate as the structural materials, rather than using the substrate itself. Surface micromachining was created in the late 1980s to render micromachining of silicon more compatible with planar integrated circuit technology, with the goal of combining MEMS and integrated circuits on the same silicon wafer. The original surface micromachining concept was based on thin polycrystalline silicon layers patterned as movable mechanical structures and released by sacrificial etching of the underlying oxide layer. Interdigital comb electrodes were used to produce in-plane forces and to detect in-plane movement capacitively. This MEMS paradigm has enabled the manufacturing of low cost accelerometers for e.g. automotive air-bag systems and other applications where low performance and/or high g-ranges are sufficient. Analog Devices have pioneered the industrialization of surface micromachining and have realized the co-integration of MEMS and integrated circuits. 3. High aspect ratio (HAR) silicon micromachining Both bulk and surface silicon micromachining are used in the industrial production of sensors, ink-jet nozzles, and other devices. But in many cases the distinction between these two has diminished. A new etching technology, deep reactive-ion etching, has made it possible to combine good performance typical of bulk micromachining with comb structures and in-plane operation typical of surface micromachining. While it is common in surface micromachining to have structural layer thickness in the range of 2 m, in HAR silicon micromachining the thickness can be from 10 to 100 m. The materials commonly used in HAR silicon micromachining are thick polycrystalline silicon, known as epi-poly, and bonded silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers although processes for bulk silicon wafer also have been created (SCREAM).
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Figure 2: Various types of Packaging of MEMS Sensors

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Applications
In one viewpoint MEMS application is categorized by type of use.

Sensor Actuator Structure

In another view point MEMS applications are categorized by the field of application (commercial applications include):

Inkjet printers, which use piezoelectric or thermal bubble ejection to deposit ink on paper. Accelerometers in modern cars for including airbag deployment in collisions. a large number of purposes

Accelerometers in consumer electronics devices such as game controllers (Nintendo Wii), personal media players / cell phones (Apple iPhone, various Nokia mobile phone models, various HTC PDA models) and a number of Digital Cameras (various Canon Digital IXUS models). Also used in PCs to park the hard disk head when free-fall is detected, to prevent damage and data loss. MEMS gyroscopes used in modern cars and other applications to detect yaw; e.g., to deploy a roll over bar or trigger dynamic stability control. Silicon pressure sensors e.g., car tire pressure sensors, and disposable blood pressure sensors Displays e.g., the DMD chip in a projector based on DLP technology, which has a surface with several hundred thousand micro mirrors. Optical switching technology, which is used for switching technology and alignment for data communications. Bio-MEMS applications in medical and health related technologies from Lab-OnChip to Micro Total Analysis (biosensor, chemosensor)

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1.

Micromirror devices:Micromirror devices are devices based on microscopically small mirrors. The mirrors are Microelectromechanical systems which means their states are controlled by applying a voltage between the two electrodes around the mirror arrays. There are digital micromirror devices used in video projectors and optics and micromirror devices for light deflection and control. The mirrors could not only be switched between two states, their rotation is in fact continuous. This could be used for controlling the intensity and direction of incident light. One future application is controlling the light in buildings, based on micromirrors between the two panes of Insulated glazing. The power and direction of the incident light is determined by the mirrors state, which itself is controlled electrostatically.

Figure 3: Micromirror (Courtesy: Texas Instruments)

Figure 4: MOEMS Micromirrors

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2.

Adaptive Optics: Adaptive optics (AO) is a technology used to improve the performance of optical systems by reducing the effect of wave front distortions. Adaptive optics works by measuring the distortions in a wave front and compensating for them with a spatial phase modulator such as a deformable mirror or a liquid crystal array. Adaptive optics should not be confused with active optics, which works on a longer timescale to correct the primary mirror geometry. The simplest form of adaptive optics is tip-tilt correction, which corresponds to correction of the tilts of the wave front in two dimensions (equivalent to correction of the position offsets for the image). This is performed using a rapidly moving tip-tilt mirror that makes small rotations around two of its axes. Adaptive optics was first applied to flood-illumination retinal imaging to produce images of single cones in the living human eye. Combined with optical coherence tomography, adaptive optics has allowed the first three-dimensional images of living cone photoreceptors to be collected.

Figure 5: Adaptive Optics(Courtesy: Texas Instruments and UCLA)

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3.

Biomedical MEMS:Small volume of reagent samples (like blood), required for analysis. Low power consumption hence lasts longer on the same battery. Less invasive, hence less painful. Integration permits a large number of systems to be built on a single chip. Silicon, used in most MEMS devices, interferes lesser with body tissues.

Figure 6: Role of MEMS in Medical applications

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Figure 7: Market Share of MEMS Sensors in various fields

MEMS sensors in the biomedical field maybe used as: Critical sensors, used during operations. Long term sensors for prosthetic devices. Sensor arrays for rapid monitoring and diagnosis at home.

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Advantages of BioMEMS are:

biocompatibility silicon is biocompatible, plus microtexturing of surfaces greater uniformity and reliability reproducibility miniaturized implants low power optical and electrical sensitivity ability to integrate sensor and actuator closed loop systems are possible ability to integrate electronics precise control small size, ability to integrate sensors and actuators ability to interact with fluids microfluidics, biochemical sensors, etc. precise control, quick response, short time scale operation, response to electrical stimulus for drug delivery applications, for example chemical functionalization and microtexturing, especially for tissue engineering applications miniaturization and ability to measure physiological signals as well as the ability to provide electrical impulses, such as for pace maker applications

Challenges for MEMS medical sensors: Biocompatibility remains the biggest hurdle for MEMS medical devices. Life of the device. Retrieving data out of the device. Resist drifting along with the body fluids.

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4. Touch-screen Phones: Apple Inc.'s iPhone 4, unveiled by the company Monday (June 7), is the world's first smart phone to sport a MEMS gyroscope. Apple continues to set the pace for its competitors by adding a three-axis MEMS gyroscope to complement its pioneering use of a MEMS accelerometer, which has since been universally adopted by other smartphone vendors. Likewise, by the 2010 holiday season, it is expected that all the major handset vendors will announce gyro-enabled smartphones. Gyroscopes enable much more responsive user interfaces by allowing various motions to control action, a concept pioneered in the consumer market by Nintendo's Motion Plus add-on for its Wii video game controller. Now like the Wii, the iPhone can be used to recognize detailed gesturessuch as air-signing a check--as well as allow its use as a 3D mouse when controlling a computer mouse or large screen TV. Other MEMS and capacitive sensors quietly added by Apple to the new iPhone 4 will further enhance motion processing including a proximity sensor akin to Wii's sensor-bar, an ambient light sensor and dual noise-cancelling-silicon microphones.

Figure 8: Apple iPhone4

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Algorithm could replace touch screens with MEMS control

A new type of MEMS-based user interface enables 12 different device control functions while also eliminating expensive touch screens. A tri-axis accelerometer developed by Kionix Inc. (Ithica, N.Y.) uses embedded algorithms to detect single- or double-taps on the six faces of a consumer electronic device. The newest algorithm is what we call directional tap and directional double tap. The approach provides the "ability to sense from which direction the tap originated, the right side of the device, the left side, the front, the top, the bottom or the back." Kionix characterized users' tap patterns from all six directions and created algorithms that run on its three-axis accelerometer. The algorithms detect both the direction of the tap, and whether it was a single of double tap. It then enables 12 possible actions performed by consumer electronic devices. Directional tap and double tap will open up a whole new way of constructing user interfaces for consumer electronic devices like cell phones and portable music players A single front tap could silence a ringing phone or a double tap could send it to voice mail, eliminating the need for an expensive touch screen. For touch screen phones and music players, the tap-detection algorithms embedded in the Kionix accelerometer could also eliminated the need for a menu bar, instead allowing up to 12 menu items to be encoded as direction or double taps. According to Kionix, accelerometers are already being used in cell phones to take advantage of built-in algorithms to perform automatic portrait-tolandscape screen rotation, to detect drops as well as for power management functions like stand-by mode when not moving or power-on when moving. Kionix is currently designing new algorithms with specific applications for emergng industries like healthcare devices. The company is also designing new accelerometers, gyros and magnetometers for applications that require all three MEMS sensors in a single device.

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5.

MEMS Pressure Industry:

Sensors

in

the

Automotive

The automotive market is one of the most important application segments of Micro Electronic Mechanical Systems (MEMS) sensors. MEMS-based devices are used in a variety of applications in automotive for improving the safety and comfort levels of the automobile. This segment has the distinction of being the first high-volume application for MEMS-based devices. There has been a marked change in the position of sensors in an automobile from ancillary to essential units. The demand for sensors in the automotive market is expected to be strong along with the increased need for fuel-efficient cars made by environmental and legislative mandates.

Figure: Automotive MEMS Sensors Market Share

Applications in the Automotive Market: The main applications for MEMS technology in the automotive market is for the following sensors:

Pressure Sensors Inertial Sensors Flow Sensors

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 Pressure Sensors MEMS-based pressure sensors are currently being used for measuring manifold air pressure (MAP) and also for measuring the parameter for applications such as the fuel rail, fuel tank, and engine oil. Further, pressure sensors are also used for taking measurement in the side doors and for passenger detection. The pressure sensor market in the automotive industry is set for explosive growth, driven by the application of tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) driven by regulation in the United States. Tire pressure sensors are also expected to gain acceptance in Europe and Japan and also in luxury vehicles in the emerging economies. Pressure sensors were developed for the purpose of MAP sensing in the mid 1980s. Since then, technology has progressed from uncompensated bulk micro machined piezoresistive pressure sensors to a Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) -integrated bulk micro machined pressure sensor with non volatile memory. This has enabled the addition of features such as three-wire interface and changeable rail voltages besides resulting in higher accuracy.

Tire Pressure Sensors Boom: Around 40 percent of all vehicle owners do not check the tire pressure in their vehicles and this led to a need for a stable tire pressure monitoring system that would warn the driver of low tire pressure. Major accidents caused by improperly inflated tires and the resulting recall of a large number of Firestone tires resulted in the U.S. Congress being pressurized into taking legislative action to protect motorists. The legislation called TREAD Act requires the mandatory installation of TPMS in all vehicles that will warn the driver within 20 minutes of detection of under inflation of the vehicle. In Europe a decline in price is expected from the TPMS systems that will contribute to the growth of this segment. This market is not expected to grow at the same pace as the United States; however, a significant growth is anticipated. This is because competition between various automotive manufacturers and the priority of safety will lead to many these manufacturers fitting TPMS systems on their European models as well. The migration of the installation of TPMS systems from high-end vehicles to the lower-end vehicles is expected to take place very rapidly. Additionally, consumer activist groups have been pressurizing the European Union to pass a law that mandates the compulsory fitment of pressure sensors onto the vehicles. The Japanese market has been always been quick to adopt any new technologies dealing with automotive safety and its expected to be the same with the tire pressure sensors segment. The Chinese and Indian markets require regulations to be mandated for the markets to take off but such regulations are not expected before 2010. However, companies such as Infineon and Freescale Semiconductor are already gearing up for sudden changes in demand from these countries especially China.

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6. Inkjet Printers:
An inkjet printer is a type of computer printer that creates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper. Inkjet printers are the most commonly used type of printer and range from small inexpensive consumer models to very large professional machines that can cost up to thousands of dollars. The emerging ink jet material deposition market also uses inkjet technologies, typically printheads using piezoelectric crystals, to deposit materials directly on substrates.

A printer company called Memjet looks like they could change the way printing is done, or at the very least how fast it is done. Their technology looks like it achieves one of the holy grails of inkjet printing, full page width heads.

Figure 9: Comparison between Traditional and Latest MEMS Inkjet printers- I

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Figure 10: Comparison between Traditional and Latest MEMS Inkjet printers- II

Figure 11: Description of MEMS print head.

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Memjet printers solved the problem of cost-effectiveness by breaking the strip up in to 11 separate chips, each about 3/4 of an inch long. How they are seamlessly assembled wasnt explained, but the end result is a single strip of 70,000 print heads. Four colours and 8.66 means a little over 2000 jets per color per inch. That should comfortably beat the claimed 600DPI, so no qualms there. In addition, Memjet representatives claimed there would be a photo oriented head/ink combo coming in the not so distant future. This level of speed and density brings up a problem though, rendering the pages out takes a lot of horsepower, and that means expensive imaging engines. Memjet solves this by doing most of the number crunching on the host, it will spike CPU time, but any modern PC should have more than enough to spare Intel is probably very pleased with this technology; they have long been a proponent of consuming ever more CPU cycles by subsuming what used to be peripheral chips. One down side to this approach is that it makes for large and complex drivers, and can lead to proprietary printing languages. Doing this to peripherals is nothing new, but printers moved away from proprietary languages to Postscript and PCL years ago. A bigger problem is that the drivers are only going to be there for Operating Systems supported by Memjet, and that means no Linux. Darn. One last thing to note, Memjet does not make printers, they make parts of printers. You will never see a Memjet device on the market, but you will see some things powered by their technology later this year In the end, Memjet says the home/office printers with their technology will cost in the $500-600 range, and per-page costs landing at around 5 cents. In comparison to the price of HP or similar sellers of ink, Memjet is absurdly cheap, in high end laser territory per page for a small fraction of the printer cost. If it all works as promised, and they get a Linux driver out, they could change the industry.

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A Computer Controlled Test System for MicroElectro-Mechanical-Resonator (MEMS Resonator) Gas Sensors

The project reported here comprises the design and development of a computer-controlled test system to measure and characterize the responses of MEMS-based resonant sensors to various gas mixtures, concentrations and operating temperatures in an automated way.

MEMS is an acronym for Micro-Electro-Mechanical System. These devices marry traditional mechanical systems with microelectronics, using the silicon semiconductor technology and integrated circuit fabrication. MEMS technology is a natural extension of the integrated circuit technology into the electro-mechanical domain. Engineers use the technique of systematically adding thin films of material on a substrate and then selectively removing portions of those films and the substrate to form both the mechanical structures and electronic components of these devices. This type of process lends itself to the fabrication of electromechanical devices in the micrometer scale with fine features down to the sub-micrometer range. As with semiconductor chip manufacturing, this scale and technology is also conducive to the production of a large number of devices in a batch very economically.

MEMS resonators are microminiaturized electromechanical devices designed to display extremely enhanced mechanical resonance characteristics at a desired frequency. Since they can be miniaturized and fabricated on the same chip as the integrated circuit they are challenging the quartz crystal which has been the only device available to design stable oscillator and clock frequency circuits.

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An increase in the mass of the shuttle will reduce the natural frequency of the system. For gas sensing applications, the shuttle can be coated with a thin film of a polymer with gas absorption properties. Any absorption of gas by the polymer will increase the mass of the system and therefore lower the frequency of its resonance. Utilizing polymers with gas specific qualities, it is possible to calibrate the MEMS resonator for gas detection purposes so that the concentrations can be determined. The process of absorption is a temperature dependent reaction, therefore control or monitoring of the device temperature is important.

For the sensing to be effective, the resonance should be well defined with high quality factors, Q, which is a measure of the ratio of resonance frequency divided by the width of the resonance peak at half power. In Figure 1.b electromechanical response of one of our MEMS resonators measured with an HP 4195A Spectrum Analyzer is being displayed. This device yields Qs in the order of 500 at atmospheric pressure, therefore suitable to be used in an oscillator circuit with its frequency output solely determined by the mechanical oscillations.

Figure 12. MEMS Resonator

Figure 13. MEMS Resonator Frequency Response

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2. Computer Controlled Test System for MEMS Resonator Gas Sensors

The test system employs LabVIEW as the software platform for interfacing, communication, control and data acquisition between a personal computer and the measurement setup via the GPIB bus, and the USB and serial ports. In the set up, the gas or the analyte vapor to be sensed is mixed with an inert carrier gas to adjust its concentration. Flow rates and concentration levels are determined by computer controlled mass flow controllers. Figure 2 gives a schematic representation of the set-up.

HP 54504A Digital

Computer, running LabVIEW software

HP 5335A Universal Counter

MEMR

Controlled Environment

HP 4194A Impedance/Gain GPIB Analyzer Gas Out

Quartz Crystal Monitor MFC

Carrier Gas

Gas Programmab Power Gas In Computer controlled Mass Flow Controller Unit

Gas

Figure 14. Schematic diagram of the test system for MEMS Gas Sensor characterization

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The system includes a test chamber which has where the MEMS resonator chip is placed facing in, flush with the inner wall of the test chamber for exposure to the (analyte + carrier gas) mixture. The MEMS resonator die is bonded to a 44-pin Chip Carrier and wire-bonded to its terminals. The chip carrier is plugged into a PLCC socket and attached to the chamber, therefore, allowing the wiring to signal processing to remain outside the test chamber and unexposed to the gas mixture. The resonators electrical output is fed into a trans-impedance amplifier which acts as a current to voltage converter. Voltage amplification and phase angle inversion is done by additional operational amplifier circuits. This signal amplification/phase inversion is needed to bring the closed loop gain of the system to above unity when its output is fed back into the comb drive of the resonator so that self-starting oscillations are obtained to monitor the mechanical resonant frequency of the MEMS structure. This facilitates measurement of the changes taking place in the shuttle mass of the device due to added mass of the gas molecules absorbed. In this system, out of 4 D/A channels available, 3 are dedicated to set the flow rates through 3 gas lines via 3 Mass Flow Controllers. Remaining D/A channel is dedicated to set the temperature of a heater that heats the chip. All of the D/A outputs which are limited at +/- 10VDC maximum, are buffered to provide the power and voltage level needed, 15VDC for the mass flow controllers and 24V, 12W for the heater. Total of 3 mass flow controllers control 3 gas flows through 3 quick-connect plastic tubing, which merge the flows at a manifold to be delivered to the test chamber. 1 of the 3 lines is used for the carrier gas (Nitrogen or Dry Air) and 2 are for the analyte gases. In these two lines bubblers are incorporated to add vapours of volatile organic compounds, VOCs, such as alcohols, to facilitate testing the sensor for sensitivity to VOCs or added moisture. Concentration of the analyte gas and/or VOC in the test chamber can thus be adjusted through the ratio of the flow rates with respect to the carrier gas. By turning on and off, or adjusting the flow ratio through software the system allows dynamic measurement of sensor response by stepping the concentration level and synchronize the measurement periods with them. The LabVIEW program written, in addition to the gas mixing ratio, controls the injection time of the analyte and, synchronizes the cycling of sample temperature with purging and gas injection in the test chamber. After each injection the program triggers all measurement instruments and gathers data to quantify and generate plots of sensor response vs. injected gas concentration and temperature. Temperature control of the MEMS chip is done a with PID control loop of thermocouple voltage amplified, PID processed in LabVIEW, and outputted as an analog voltage which controls the DC power of a thin-filmon-ceramic micro heater integrated with the MEMS chip.

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In the system a Sycon Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) sensor and its oscillator circuit are also included to act as reference sensor. Therefore, the system has to detect measure and monitor two very different oscillation frequencies, 6MHz output of the QCM sensor and the 30 KHz output of the MEMS Resonator. Figure 3 shows the LabVIEW window displayed while the system is running. It incorporates graphical display of the monitored variables, like the temperature, the two sensor frequencies measured and the mass flow controller outputs (i.e. flow rates measured). On the same window the user set points are also displayed. Buttons and their functions and the displayed variables have been marked on the figure.

Figure 15. GUI Window displayed by the LabVIEW program developed to run the tests

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MEMS Based Hydrogen Gas Sensor

Hydrogen is currently expected to join electricity and fossil fuels as a primary energy carrier in the 21st century. Significant R&D efforts are currently directed toward creating the basic building blocks of such an H2 economy: production, storage, transport and utilization.

A common need of these building blocks is the ability to detect and quantify the amount of H2 gas present. This is required for health and safety reasons, as well as for monitoring H2 based processes, e.g. H2 fuelled automobiles would require sensors to detect gas leaks, as well as to monitor and regulate the air/H2 mixture.

An effective H2 detection and monitoring system requires a sensor element that functions in a variety of challenging environments. It needs to be selective to H2 in a range of atmospheres, including the O2-rich high humidity environments found in fuel cells, as well as in O2 depleted atmospheres. Speed of detection is a critical requirement for rapid response to potentially hazardous leaks.

Low power consumption is requisite for use in portable instrumentation and personnel monitoring devices. Ultimately, these must be achieved by an element that is safe and economical.

These sensors couple novel thin films as the active layer with a MEMS structure known as a Micro- Hotplate. This coupling has resulted in a H2 gas sensor that has several unique advantages in terms of speed, sensitivity, and amenability to manufacturing.

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i.

Sensor Fabrication H2 gas sensors have been produced at ATMI using MEMS based CMOS foundry process. In this process, micro hotplate device structures were designed using CAD layout software. These designs were fabricated through the MOSIS foundry service. The received chips were etched in house using XeF2 to create suspended micro-hotplate device structures. The structures, (~200mm x 200mm in size) were functionalized by depositing a H2 sensitive coating that consisted of a rare earth thin film over coated with a palladium based top-layer. The final fabrication step was the dicing and packaging of the chips, which was done by a commercial foundry. Sensor Testing Accurately measuring the speed of response to H2 was an important consideration for the sensor test apparatus. The data collection system consisted of automated measurement system capable of a scanning speed of 250 channels/s. To achieve fast gas switching speeds, the gas manifold used low volume 4way valves in combination with 1/8 tubing and a small test chamber size (~10 3 cm ). The ambient gas used for the experiment was triple filtered compressed dry air or dry N2. H2 was blended with the ambient gas using mass flow controllers with ranges of 200 and 5000 sccm respectively.

ii.

Figure 16: Optical photograph of a packaged H2 sensor.

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MODELING OF A GAS DETECTOR CIRCUIT FOR LTCC DESIGN: Low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) is a well-established multi-layer technology. Each of the layers are processed in parallel and only brought together in an accurately aligned stack immediately prior to firing. This is the key differentiator to serially produced multi-layer structures such as thick film hybrid interconnect and components such as ceramic capacitors. LTCC technology is especially beneficial for RF and high-frequency applications. In RF and wireless applications, LTCC technology is also used to produce multilayer hybrid integrated circuits, which can include resistors, inductors, capacitors, and active components in the same package. In this report we will be modelling a simple gas detector circuit which can be later converted into a LTCC module.

Figure17: Circuit depicting a gas detector circuit which is to be implemented using LTCC Technology.

In the circuit resistance R5 serves as a model for a gas detector whose resistance changes when gas is detected. The output from the second op-amp serves as the output of the circuit. This node is to be connected to a buzzer in the actual implementation. This circuit consists of a bridge circuit, a difference amplifier and a comparator. The resistances R4, R5, R2 and R6 form the bridge. Any increase in the resistance of R5 can be detected as this would lead to a higher difference voltage being fed to the difference amplifier. The op-amp U1 serves as the difference amplifier with a differential gain of 10. The output from this stage is fed to a comparator which compares it with a fixed voltage obtained from a voltage divider circuit.

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Conclusion:The global market for micro-electromechanical systems, which includes products such as automobile airbag systems, display systems and inkjet cartridges totalled $40 billion in 2006 according to Global MEMS/Microsystems Markets and Opportunities, a research report from SEMI and Yole Development and is forecasted to reach $72 billion by 2011. MEMS devices are defined as die-level components of first-level packaging, and include pressure sensors, accelerometers, gyroscopes, microphones, digital mirror displays, micro fluidic devices, etc. The materials and equipment used to manufacture MEMS devices topped $1 billion worldwide in 2006. Materials demand is driven by substrates, making up over 70 percent of the market, packaging coatings and increasing use of chemical mechanical planarization (CMP). While MEMS manufacturing continues to be dominated by used semiconductor equipment, there is a migration to 200 mm lines and select new tools, including etch and bonding for certain MEMS applications. MEMS can offer new avenues in the field in the field of Medical technology, the only problem being the absence of abundant number of players in the market which is causing cost escalation in the present scenario. Governments should actively invest in MEMS technology to improve the conditions of medical facilities currently being provided to the people. MEMS technology requires high initial capital investments hence is generally not in the reach of small private firms. So governments should provide for the funds required for research.

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References:

[1] Chang Liu " Foundations of MEMS" (Illinois Ece Series) Prentice Hall 2005 [2] Beams, D.M., "Project TUNA - The Development of a LabView Virtual Instrument as a Class Project in a Junior-Level Electronics Course", Proc. of ASEE, s2259, 2000. [3] Guvench, M.G., Gile, S. and Qazi, S. Automated Measurement of Frequency Response of Electrical Networks, Filters and Amplifiers Proc. of ASEE, s2259, 2001. [4] Walsh, S. and Orabi, I.I., "Application of LabView for Undergraduate Lab Experiments On Vibrations Testing", Proc. of ASEE, s2320, 2000. [5] Bishop, R.H., "Learning with LabView," Addison Wesley, 1998. [6]Wells, L.K. and Travis, J., LabVIEW For Everyone, Graphical Programming, PrenticeHall, 1997. [7]LabVIEW is a product of National Instruments, Austin, Texas, www.natinst.com. [8] Justin T. McCue and Jackie Y. Ying, SnO2In2 O3 Nanocomposites as Semiconductor Gas Sensors for CO and NOx Detection, Chem. Mater., 2007, 19 (5), pp 10091015 [9] J. Aguilar-Leyva, A. Maldonado and M. de la L. Olvera, Gas-sensing characteristics of undoped-SnO2 thin films and Ag/SnO2 and SnO2/Ag structures Materials Characterization, Volume 58, Issues 8-9, August-September 2007, Pages 740-744 [10]Jinhuai Liu, Xingjiu Huang, GanYe and Wei Liu, H2S Detection sensor characteristic of CuO/SnO2 Sensor, Sensors 2003 3 110-118 [11] S. Fung, Z. Tang, P. Chan, J. Sin, P. Cheung, Thermal analysis and design of a micro hotplate for integrated gas-sensor applications, Sensor and Actuators A 54 (1996) 482-487.

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