MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems)

MICROFABRICATION

SEM image of an insect (spider mite)

on a MEMS gear-train
(Sandia National Lab)
 MEMS in our daily lives

Digital Micromirror Display

for projector
(Texas Instruments)

Blood analyzer
(i-STAT)

Microaccelerometer
for airbag system Inkjet printer head
(Analog Devices) (Hewlett Packard)
 MORE MEMS

MEMS Sensors (Physical and Chemical)

Research tools
Medical diagnosis/treatment
 RAPIDLY GROWING NEED FOR
MEMS ENGINEERS

MEMS Design Microfabrication

Microscale-Mechanics Microscale-Phenomena
 MEM 417/617 Introduction to Microfabrication

Fundamentals and Applications of Microfabrication Technologies

MEMS Design Basics
Fall and Spring

MEM 419/619 Microfluidics and Lab-on-a-Chip

Microfluidic Phenomena and devices

Lab-on-a-chip and BioMEMS Technologies
Winter
 MEM 417/617
INTRODUCTION TO MICROFABRICATION
Moses Noh, Ph.D.

Topics:

Photolithography
Wet etching
Dry (plasma) etching
Thin-film deposition techniques
Soft lithography and polymer micromachining
MEMS examples
Demonstration lab class

Syllabus
 Lecture 1. Introduction to MEMS

•  Introduction to Microelectronics Technology

–  Origin and Progression

–  How integrated circuits (IC) are made

•  Introduction to MEMS

–  Origin and Progression

–  IC vs. MEMS

–  MEMS Examples

–  MEMS Classification, Markets, Industry, Future

 Microelectronics (Integrated Circuit)

TI’s first IC made by Intel Pentium processor

Jack Kilby, 1958 (21st century)
(Read the story next page)

“Can the entire circuit be built

on a semiconductor chip?”

17 nm feature!

Moore’s Law (1965)

“The number of transistors per
square inch on integrated circuits
will double every year.”
The Origin of Integrated Circuits
In 1958, transistors had become commonplace in everything from radios to phones to computers,
and now manufacturers wanted something even better and smaller. There was a limit on how small
you could make each transistor, since after it was made it had to be connected to wires and other
electronics. The transistors were already at the limit of what steady hands and tiny tweezers could
handle. So, scientists wanted to make a whole circuit - the transistors, the wires, everything else
they needed - in a single blow. If they could create a miniature circuit in just one step, all the parts
could be made much smaller. One day in late July, Jack Kilby was sitting alone at Texas
Instruments. He had been hired only a couple of months earlier and so he wasn't able to take
vacation time when practically everyone else did. The halls were deserted, and he had lots of time
to think. It suddenly occurred to him that all parts of a circuit, not just the transistor, could be made
out of silicon (semiconductor). At the time, nobody was making capacitors or resistors out of
semiconductors. If it could be done the entire circuit could be built out of a single crystal -- making it
smaller and easier to produce. Kilby's boss liked the idea, and told him to get to work. Within a
couple of months, Kilby built a working model, and on February 6, Texas Instruments filed a patent.
But over in California, another man had similar ideas. In January of 1959, Robert Noyce was
working at Fairchild Semiconductor startup company. He also realized a whole circuit could be
made on a single chip. While Kilby had hammered out the details of making individual components,
Noyce thought of a much better way to connect the parts. That spring, Fairchild began a push to
build what they called "unitary circuits" and they also applied for a patent on the idea. Knowing that
TI had already filed a patent on something similar, Fairchild wrote out a highly detailed application,
hoping that it wouldn't infringe on TI 's similar device. All that detail paid off. On April 25, 1961, the
patent office awarded the first patent for an integrated circuit to Robert Noyce while Kilby's
application was still being analyzed. Today, both men are acknowledged as having independently
conceived of the idea. Jack Kilby was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics in 2000. (www.pbs.org)
 Integrated Circuit Technology
MOSFET (Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor–Field-Effect-Transistor)

CMOS
Micropatterning
(Photolithography)

PMOS Wet/Dry etching

NMOS Thin film deposition
Diffusion, oxidation

Video “Silicon Run”

IC Fabrication Technology

VG

D S

CMOS

PMOS
NMOS
 The Birth and Growth of MEMS
Can we use IC fabrication technology to make non-electronic devices?
•  Microstructures, sensors, actuators, and their integration.
•  Microelectromechanical systems (US and Asia, since 1989)
•  Microsystems (Europe)

•  “MEMS concept has grown to encompass many other types of small

things, including thermal, magnetic, fluidic, and optical devices and
systems, with or without moving parts.” – Stephen Senturia

MEMS electromagnetic Digital micromirror

Inkjet printer head actuator HPLC chip
display
 Microelectronics vs. MEMS

Microelectronics MEMS only

Techniques Photolithography Stereolithography
Oxidation Inkjet printing
Physical deposition Soft lithography
CVD Micromolding
Wet etching Laser ablation
Dry etching Electroplating
Diffusion LIGA
Ion implantation Focused ion beam
CMP
Materials Si, SiO2, SiNx Glass, Polymers,
Metals Ceramics, Composites,
Hydrogels
 Why MEMS?
•  Small size, light weight, integration with electronics
- Miniature, portable, implantable devices
- Low power consumption, less sample amount required
- Micrometer scale
(many applications in life science)

•  Batch process
- Low cost
•  Precise control of geometry, Cortical implant
µChemLab

material purity, and properties

- Better performance
(sensitivity, accuracy, speed)
•  High surface to volume ratio
- New physical phenomena
Manipulation of bioparticles
using electrokinetics
 IC/MEMS Timeline

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

 On-Chip Gas Chromatograph
Revolutionary Microfluidic System in 1970’s

2-inch wafer with 1.5 m

column, valve and detector
S.C. Terry et al., IEEE
Trans. Electron Dev.
ED-26 (1979) 1880

3000 MicroGC, Agilent

(1990’s)
Integrated Capacitive Pressure Sensors

Parallel plate capacitor with 2 µm gap

Pressure change à capacitance change

C.S. Sander, J.W. Knutti,

J.D. Meindl, IEEE Trans.
Electron Dev. ED-27
(1980) 927
Acceleration Sensor ADXL-50
Analog Devices, 1991
Epson Inkjet Printer Head

Piezo crystal
Texas Instrument DMD
 Lab-on-a-Chip Example: i-STAT Blood Analyzer
Disposable cartridges measure blood gases, electrolytes, cardiac markers, etc.
 Lab-on-a-Chip Example: Liver-on-a-Chip
Authentic Liver Tissue Model

Liver Sinusoid

Sinusoid

Bile duct

• Liver biology studies rely on hepatocyte

culture models. However, when hepatocytes
are isolated and cultured in vitro, they lose
their normal functions.
There are no authentic liver models. Bile
 BioMEMS Example: Medical Implants
• Hydrocephalus is an abnormal accumulation of CSF
within the subarachnoid space of the brain due to impaired
CSF absorption. (8,305 newly diagnosed cases in 2000)
ventricle
• Current treatment: Ventriculo-peritoneal (VP) shunt
- High failure rate (50% in 2 yrs) and inaccurate shunting
HI-MEMS Cyborg Insects
A proposal from DARPA for the development of
cyborg insects that can be controlled by humans.
The goal is to create a cyborg that could be
maneuvered to within five feet of a target and
transmit back information about its environment.

Tobacco hornworm with circuit and electrode

implanted in pupal stage (Cornell Univ.)
 US Air Force unveiled insect-sized surveillance drones
More reading: http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=50931
 Classification (2015 MEMS Conference)

Development of MEMS
-  Design, simulation and analysis tools with experimental verification
-  Fabrication technologies and processes
-  Silicon and non-silicon materials MEM 417/617
-  Assembly and packaging approaches
-  Metrology and operational evaluation techniques
-  System architecture

Application of MEMS
-  Microfluidic and Nanofluidic Devices
-  Lab-on-Chip and Biochemical Sensors MEM 419/619
-  Medical Microsystems (Probes, Implants, Etc.)
-  Sensors and actuators (Inertial sensors, fluidic Sensors, Ultrasonic
Transducers, Gas and Chemical Sensors, Force and Displacement
Sensors, Electromagnetic transducers, etc.)
- Microdevices for power supply and energy harvesting
 MEMS Markets

MEMS are one of the fastest growing technology areas. They have
proven to be a key enabling technology of developments in areas such
as transportation, telecommunications and health care, but the
range of MEMS applications covers nearly every sector.

$5 billion in 2005 à $20 billion in 2016

An average annual growth rate (AAGR) of more than 20%.

Big market-share products:

Microfluidic MEMS inkjet heads
Optical MEMS (e.g. DMD)
MEMS pressure sensors
MEMS accelerometers
MEMS gyroscope
RF (radio frequency) MEMS
 MEMS Foundry is Available!

STMicroelectronics $204 million

Top 20 MEMS Foundry à Silex Microsystems $37 million
http://www.eetimes.com/ Sensonor $35 million
document.asp?doc_id=1259379 Asia Pacific Microsystems $31 million
Texas Instruments $30 million
Dalsa Semiconductor $30 million
Choosing MEMS Foundry: IMT $24 million
http:// Sony $20 million
www.memsindustrygroup.org/i4a/ TSMC $20 million
headlines/headlinedetails.cfm? Micralyne $19 million
id=551 Tronics Microsystems $15 million
Touch Microsystems $12 million
Total time to market: 5 years XFab $12 million
Semefab $11 million
Cost: $10M (MEMS Foundry) Jazz $7 million
UMC $7 million
Silicon Sensing Systems $7 million
MEMSTech $5 million
Honeywell $5 million
Olympus $4 million
 More Information
•  Books
–  M. Madou, Fundamentals of Microfabrication
–  S.D. Senturia, Microsystem Design
–  G.T.A. Kovacs, Micromachined Transducers Sourcebook
–  Gad-El-Hak (Editor), The MEMS Handbook
–  N-T Nguyen, Fundamentals and Applications of Microfluidics

•  Journals
–  Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems
–  Sensors and Actuators A and B
–  Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering
–  Lab on a chip
–  Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology

•  Conferences
–  Transducers
–  IEEE/ASME MEMS Conference
–  Hilton Head Conference
–  µTAS
–  IEEE Sensors