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Proceedings of the ISRM 2009

International Symposium on Robotics and Mechatronics


September 21 - 23, 2009, Hanoi, Vietnam

MEMS technologies in fabricating micro focusing lenses and


ultrasonic transducers of printing devices

Tuan Anh Bui1*, Jung-En Hsiao1, Liang-Chi Chang1, Yun-Nan Chien1


and Min-Chun Pan1,2
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Central University, Jhongli, Taiwan
2
Graduate Institute of Biomedical Eng., National Central University, Jhongli, Taiwan
*
E-mail: 963403603@cc.ncu.edu.tw
URL: http://140.115.66.11/teacher/Teacher-35/DASD_serve/first.htm

Abstract. This paper describes the design and fabrication of four phase level acoustic Fresnel
lenses and ultrasonic transducers of ejectors operating at a frequency of 100 MHz. The
piezoelectric characteristics of ZnO thin films are confirmed due to measurement results by
XRD showing a high intensity in c-axis orientation. Lens step height and shape of circular
binary Fresnel lens measurement indicate that fabrication techniques may be controlled to
obtain our expectation performance. Analysis of experimental results for various parameters
of the fabrication processes using MEMS technologies is used as a reference to improve and
optimize design parameters such as the development time for a lens pattern and also the
sputtering process for ZnO film thickness (geometry).
Keywords: Piezoelectric, focusing lens, ultrasonic transducer, ultrasonic ejector,
Microelectromechanical system (MEMS)

1. Introduction pressure was produced by sound beams with


In recent years, ultrasonic ink jet printing Langevin’s theorem. Kino (1987) introduced some
technologies have been used to produce photographic fundamental acoustic theories such as sound
quality prints that satisfy the demands for fine diffraction and interference. He also gave several
solution, high speed and more reliability of low-cost examples of acoustic applications on medical
printers increasing in commercial use. Ultrasonic imaging and sound sensor. A detailed theoretical and
ejector is capable of ejecting small droplets of experimental consideration of droplet formation
controlled diameter from the free liquid surface by using tone bursts of focused acoustic energy was
focusing high-frequency acoustic waves without given by Elrod et al (1989). Furthermore, Hadimioglu
nozzles, and therefore, it is favorable in fabricating et al (1992) controlled size of printed spots by
print-heads. The drop size is determined by the lateral changing droplet size or by ejecting multiple droplets
dimensions of the acoustic beam. Hence, ultrasonic of ink on the same pixel. They also substituted
ink jet printing is a drop ejection process without acoustic Fresnel lens for spherical buffer rob to be the
nozzle that enables generation of extremely small sound focused part. A reflection wall to collect sound
droplets, leading to excellent directionality, which is waves generated by a piezoelectric film was used by
the key to meet high resolution printing. Ultrasonic Kaneyama et al. (1999) and Fukumoto et al. (2000).
inkjet printing is achieved by focusing sound energy They constructed a print-head model to focus sound
through refraction, reflection or diffraction of waves, beams and achieve high electro-acoustic conversion.
and hence, ink droplets are expelled out when Huang and Kim (2001) or Kwon et al. (2002)
overcoming the surface tension. This physical proposed the design and performance of
phenomena was first reported in 1927 by Wood and micromachined self-focusing acoustic-wave liquid
Loomis, they used a high-intensity acoustic beam to ejector (AWLE) that required no heat, no nozzle, nor
overcome the surface tension force. Chu and Apfel acoustic lens. The design based on the concept of
(1982) reviewed a series of papers on various aspects acoustic constructive interference. Lee et al. (2006)
of acoustics to explain how acoustic radiation proposed a new type of lens using air as acoustic

1
reflector which did not require tight thickness control generate the chemical reaction, A ICP instrument
for effective focusing. used for etching process with high plasma density
In this study, we used ZnO thin film to generate promoting the etching rate.
ultrasound focused by acoustic lens. The
piezoelectric quality depends on the sputtering 2.1. Focusing lens parameters
environment and fabrication parameters. Defranould
Ultrasonic focusing lenses need high acoustic energy
(1981) used D.C. reactive magnetron sputtering
to expel ink droplet. We desire a high efficient
equipment to sputter ZnO films on various substrates
concentration of sound energy for this purpose.
with high deposition rate up to 10 µm/h. Deposition
Ideally, the acoustic focusing efficiency approaches
parameters have been found to get high intensity in c-
to 100% for focusing lens with spherical geometry,
axis orientation as well as good piezoelectric and
but it is difficult in fabricating, especially MEMS
acoustic properties. Substrate temperature, placement
technology, and it is also a problem to be deeply
position and substrate material have been changed to
concerned. Other proposed focusing lenses that can
try to find the best c-axis orientation was performed
be used as the alternative to the conventional
by Martin et al. (2000). They indicated that the
spherical lenses such as self-focusing acoustic-wave
predominant (002) orientation is achieved in a
liquid ejector [Huang and Kim, 2001], parabolic
substrate temperature of 3000C and a cathode tilt 200.
reflection walls [Kameyama et al., 1999; Aizawa et
Yoshino et al. (2003) made a discussion about
al., 2003], and binary Fresnel lenses [Hadimioglu et
surface condition of the bottom electrode such as
al., 2001; Quate et al., 1991].
surface crystallinity and morphology that influenced
Fresnel lenses offer an advantage of planar
the ZnO thin films.
geometry and relative ease of fabrication over other
Fabrication processes of transducers and
forms of lens but the lens geometry is critical for
focusing lenses reported so far have still met some
efficient focusing, and thus tight thickness control of
drawbacks that need to be solved. In this paper, we
the lens elements is usually needed. Standard
present our attempt at using Microelectromechanical
acoustic Fresnel lenses have relatively poor
system (MEMS) technologies to fabricate ultrasonic
efficiencies since the energy couples into various
transducers and focusing lenses which are the key
diffraction modes; typical efficiency is 40% or even
components to be developed and incorporated into a
less. This would require more than doubling the input
novel printing system in order to construct a
power in comparison to spherical lenses. The design
complete acoustic inkjet print-head and to analyze the
and fabrication of "binary" acoustic Fresnel lenses
ejecting performance including droplet size,
offer much higher efficiencies [Hadimioglu et al.,
directionality and ultrasound focusing result.
1993]. Binary Fresnel lens uses multiple-phase levels
to approximate the phase curvature of spherically
2. Fabrication processes focusing field. Regarding the fabrication of a multi-
MEMS technologies are widely applied to level lens with the photolithography technique each
manufacture micro-scale or nano-scale components exposure process and etching step can create two
of commercial devices. MEMS applications depend phase levels. Therefore, 2N phase levels should be
on the techniques such as lithography, etching, and fabricated by using N masks. The formulas of binary
thin film deposition etc. to build the device with high Fresnel lenses basing on diffraction optics can be
resolution and small line width. In this section, we evaluated by the radial distances rq and step height h
present the design in order to obtain the main corresponding to a given focal length and wavelength
parameters of micro-scale ejector operating at
1/2
frequency of 100MHz and scheme out the fabrication  λ 
2

process for setting up the work preparations.   zf + q
rq = cm
 − zf2  (1)
The work was performed at Dynamic Analysis  N pl  
  ,
Structronic Design (DASD) laboratory of National
Central University, National Nano Device where Zf is the focal length of the lens, N pl is the
Laboratories (NDL), Nano Facility Center in
National Chiao Tung University and cooperated to number of phase levels, and λcm is the wavelength of
implement the designed print-head with the Electro- acoustic field in the coupling medium. The step
optical Engineer Department, Tatung University. height h between two phase levels is given as follows
Several apparatuses were employed for the purpose
including a Track instrument (Model: Suss MicroTec 1 (2)
h=
ACS 200) used for photoresist (PR) coater, developer  1 1
and temperature module, a Mask Aligner (Model: N pl f  − 
 cm
c c s  ,
Oxford Plasmalab System 100) used for plasma
etchant and a RF Magnetron Sputter machine
(Model: Suss MicroTec MA 150CC) using high
where h is the frequency of ultrasound; ccm and c s
intensity Ultraviolet (UV) light to illuminate the PR- are the sound velocities in the coupling medium and
coated wafer across the designed mask to lead the PR

2
in the lens substrate respectively. The diffraction ZnO thin film growth and processing approaches
efficiency of multiple phase levels lens is given by are crucial for fabricating various frequency
ultrasonic transducers with a uniform response.
 sin (π N pl ) 
2

(3) Piezoelectric material ZnO provides a relatively high


η= 
 (π N pl )  electromechanical coupling coefficient and
. reasonable compatibility with integrated circuit
Hence, the four-level Fresnel lens as shown in Fig. 1 processing techniques. Moreover, no adhesion layer
has theoretical diffraction efficiency up to 81%. is required for bonding the transducer layer to the
substrate or electrode layer.
Acoustic waves generated by the ultrasonic When the transducer is placed in air or water,
transducer propagate in an ink medium and then most of the wave energy will be reflected at the
focus at the liquid surface by the focusing lens. The boundaries of the piezoelectric film. The sound
propagation velocity of acoustic wave in the ink waves which are unexpectedly reflected must affect
employed in our study is 1661.54m/s. Furthermore, the sound convergence at the focal area and ejection
the Fresnel focusing lens was designed with Fnumber performance. To solve this problem, the transducer is
≈1; it means that the lens diameter is approximate attached a backing material on the back side with its
focal length of the lens. acoustic impedance close to that of the transducer.
Substituting the design parameters into the above Backing layer makes no energy left to be reflected
equations, the maximum radial distance and the step from the end of backing and affects the sound energy
height is obtained as r16 = 282.36µm and h = convergence [McKeighen, 1998]. Furthermore,
5.09µm, respectively. Shown in Table 1 are the lens backing layer prevents the piezoelectric array from
parameters. over-vibrating so that the array must stop working
once exciting voltage is at the rest of driving signals
Table 1. Lens design parameters. [Hirahara et al., 2000].
Sound Acoustic Focal The electro-mechanical coupling keff can be
Density Diameter
Material velocity impedance length
(g/cm3) (µm) written as
(m/s) (MRayl) (µm)
f a2 − f r2 (4)
Silicon 1.193 2666 20.97 564.72 620 keff ≈
f r2 ,

where fa and fr denote the anti-resonant and resonant


frequency, respectively. This form owns to the
2.2. Ultrasonic transducer parameters different piezoelectric material and operating
The ultrasonic transducer is one of the key frequency. The thickness of piezoelectric material
components in acoustic inkjet print-heads. A relates its resonant frequency with
transducer can generate ultrasonic waves by inverse d × f ≈ 3099 ( m.Hz ) (5)
piezoelectric effect with an input of high frequency .
signal. Efficient generation of ultrasonic waves is Therefore, the relation of electric impedance and
important to minimize the required energy of RF frequency can be sketched under a fixed thickness.
signals, thereby reducing the power of the print-head. The resonant frequency and anti-resonant frequency
with thickness of 31µm are 99 MHz and 100 MHz,
respectively. Parameters of the ZnO film are shown
in Table 2. The Structure of a piezoelectric transducer
comprises a ZnO thin film placed between the top
and bottom Al electrodes that are made by electron
beam evaporation on a Si substrate.

Table 2. ZnO piezo-electric film parameters.


Electro-
Sound Acoustic
Density Thickness mechanical
Material velocity impedance
3
(g/cm ) (µm) coupling
(m/s) (MRayl)
constant
Zinc
Oxide 5.6 6400 35.88 31 0.14
(ZnO)

2.3. Fabrication processes


In this section, we present the fabrication processes
Fig. 1. Basic parameters of designing a four-level Fresnel of micro focusing lenses and ZnO transducers using
lens; h is the step height and the rq (q = 1,2,3,...) is MEMS technologies. Shown in Fig. 2 are main
the radial distance. manufacturing steps of these components. Firstly,

3
focusing lenses are fabricated on the front side of using a RF power of 178W. And then the Al bottom
silicon substrate through PR coating, exposure, electrode is deposited with evaporator in the same
develop and etching techniques. If we design 2N manner to complete the fabrication of transducer. The
phase level lenses, they should be fabricated by using schematic fabrication of ultrasonic transducer is
N masks to repeat the same fabrication steps. described as shown in Fig. 4.
Secondly, transducers are further sputtered on the
back side of the substrate. The shape of transducers is
Silicon substrate
a sandwich type including upper electrode, ZnO
piezoelectric film and bottom electrode, therefore
depositing upper electrode, sputtering ZnO
piezoelectric film and then depositing bottom PR coating Repeat N times
electrode are performed respectively. In the way, the
focusing lenses and transducers are integrated into
one silicon substrate.
Exposure Upper electrode
deposition
Fabrication of lens
Before taking PR coating, silicon substrate must
be cleaned, using the standard cleaning procedure to Development ZnO sputtering
remove the unwanted impurities. The cleaning
process includes immersing silicon in acetone and
vibrating by ultrasonic for five munities to remove
Etching Bottom electrode
the organics and oil, after that using isopropyl alcohol deposition
washes away the resident particles and then using
nitrogen gun to speed up the evaporation rate of
liquid and drying the wafer to ensure that no water Focusing lens Transducer
remains.
The lithography process is taken after the
Fig. 2. Flowchart of fabrication processes of focusing
cleaning process. The procedure consists of HMDS
treatment of wafer substrate to assist the adhesion lenses and ultrasonic transducers.
force between PR layer and surface substrate; resist
coating; soft bake by sending the wafer to hot plate
chamber to progress soft bake for one minute at
temperature of 900C; exposure is aligned at each
exposure site and exposed at light intensity of 150
mJcm-2; post-exposure bake (PEB) is to minimize
standing waves in resist, taking in one minute at
900C; development taking in 30-60 seconds at room
temperature; and hard bake performing in one minute
at 1200C.
After the lithography process, the designed mask
pattern can be transferred to wafer surface. For the
designed lens of 100MHz, the pattern wafer is etched
by using ICP for 7.5 minutes in order to form the first
step with the depth of 11µm. After striping the PR,
the first shape of focusing lens is formed. The same
procedure is repeated to make the complete lens
shape with paying attention to changing etching time
to 1.57 minutes. The schematic fabrication of
focusing lens is described as shown in Fig. 3.

Fabrication of transducer
The designed transducer has a sandwich structure
including a ZnO film, placing between upper and
bottom electrodes. The Al upper electrode is
deposited using evaporator at room temperature and
pressure of 2.5x10-5mBar. When completing the Al
upper electrode deposition process, the ZnO film is Fig. 3. Fabrication processes of focusing lenses.
sputtered at 3800C in a mixture of gases O2:Ar = 1:3,

4
Silicon substrate
Si
disappear if development time is too long. Shown in
Fig.5(a) is result of a 120 second development, the
Al electrode inner rings are not appeared. On the other hand, the
evaporation pattern may become deformed as shown in Fig.5(b) if
Pressure: 2.5x10-5 mbar the process time is prolonged to 180 seconds;
meanwhile insufficient time of development may
cause the PR not fully stripped, as illustrated in
Si Fig.5(c) for the case of only 60 sec development.
ZnO sputtering
After repeating many trials of the process, we can
Temp: 3800C; RF power: 178 W obtain the intact PR pattern of developing time in 90
Pressure: 1.3x10-2 mbar; O2:Ar = 1:3 sec, as shown in Fig.5(d).
ZnO
After completing PR pattern process, the wafers
are taken to etch by ICP. Fig.6 shows results of the
Al electrode Si etchant process for 100MHz lens. Obviously, a four
evaporation step lens is observed as shown in Fig.6(a) and
Fig.6(b). And from Fig.6(c), the heights of steps of
Pressure: 2.5x10-5 mbar
lens are illustrated from top to bottom of the lens
including 5.54, 5.49 and 4.1 µm, respectively. We
ZnO met a small difference between the design and the
fabrication; the designed parameter is 5.09 µm. The
Si
small fabrication error owns to the etching rate which
Wire bonding is the default value of ICP a bit different from our
expectation.

ZnO

Si

Fig. 4. Fabrication processes of ultrasonic transducers.

The RF sputtering parameters that strongly


influence the quality of ZnO thin films include the
temperature and pressure of deposition, RF power,
target-to-substrate distance and the ratio of argon to (a) (b)
oxygen. High deposition rates may cause the
randomized crystalline structure of ZnO films,
affecting piezoelectric performance of the transducer.

3. Discussions and conclusions


3.1. Discussions
Design and fabrication of 100MHz focusing lenses
and ZnO transducers were performed using MEMS
technologies. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) (c) (d)
device was used to observe the shape of circular Fig. 5. Wafer development: (a) inner rings disappeared
binary Fresnel lens and find out the reason of (120 sec); (b) Wafer overdeveloped with a distorted
fabrication inaccuracy. The crystal orientation of shape (180 sec); (c) PR not fully stripped at
ZnO thin film was measured using XRD and insufficient development time (60 sec); (d) fully
measured the ZnO thickness by α-step apparatus. developed PR pattern of 100 MHz lens (90 sec).
Furthermore, a network spectrum analyzer was used
to analyze the impedance.
The fabrication of binary Fresnel lens is highly
required a precise control in lithography and etching
processes, especially in development process, the
transferring pattern may disappear or twist if the
wafer is overdeveloped. Shown in Fig.5 is the result
of PR pattern development process, the rings may

5
used to determine the “fingerprint” of materials.
According to the JCPDS (Joint Committee on
Powder Diffraction Standards) card data of ZnO film
(JCPDS No.36-1451), the diffraction angle of c-axis
orientation (002) of ZnO film is at 2θ = 34.40, and the
diffraction angles of other strong peaks are between
300 and 400. Hence, the range of XRD scan angle is
between 300 and 400. To consider whether the
crystalline structure is fine or not, the diffraction
intensity of the (002) peak observed is relatively
strong in comparison to that of the other peaks. In
general, the diffraction intensity of the (002) peak
must be about 5 times higher than that of other peaks.
As shown in Fig. 7, the diffraction peaks agree
(a) with the JCPDS card data as the ZnO film has strong
intensity in c-axis (002) orientation at a diffraction
angle of 34.40. Apparently, it is observed in Fig. 7
that the diffraction intensities of the (002) peaks are
more than 5 times higher than those of other peaks.
Therefore, the piezoelectric characteristics must be
very clear. On the other hand, the average thickness
about 3 µm is obtained in sputtering time 4 hours,
thus we may suppose that the mean sputtering rate is
0.75 µm/h. And then estimate the necessary
sputtering time to get the expecting thickness of 31
µm of ZnO film operating at frequency of 100MHz.
This is still a drawback of sputtering process that
needs to be solved.

3.2. Conclusions
(b) The design and fabrication of micro focusing lenses
and ultrasonic transducers operating at frequency of
100 MHz are performed using MEMS technologies.
The advantages and drawbacks of these techniques
are also presented in the paper, especially the
parameters may be affected on the quality of the
lenses and the transducers such as controlling
development time to get the best shape of lens and in
particular, the intact PR pattern is obtained for the
development time in 90 seconds. Further, the ICP
operating parameters can be changed to solve the
fabrication error in the etchant process. We can adjust
the operating parameters to get the expectation result.
On the other hand, through our experiments, we
confirm that ZnO thin film has a strong intensity in c-
(c) axis orientation which presents piezoelectric
Fig.6. Etched focusing lens with 100 MHz: a) oblique-view characteristics of ZnO films.
of full lens; b) local view of lens; c) the step heights
Through the design and fabrication processes, we
of lens
find out the solution to one of the key issues in
In order to measure the characteristics of fabricating the ultrasonic ejector of print-head that is
transducer, we use XRD to observe the c-axis the master of applying MEMS technologies in
orientation showing in Fig.7), and measure the obtaining high quality components of the ejectors.
thickness of ZnO film using α-step apparatus.
The XRD is an important examining instrument Acknowledgement
for determining the structure characteristics of This work was sponsored by the National Science
materials, such as orientation, crystalline structure, Council through grant NSC 96-2221-E-008-083.
lattice parameters, lateral displacement, defect
density and drain size. Every crystalline material has
its own characteristic X-ray pattern, and the XRD is

6
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