In the name of ALLAH, the most Gracious, the Most Merciful

NSE – 847
Essentials of NEMS/MEMS
Course Instructor: Dr. Amna Safdar

Lecture#15-16 10/04/2020 1
 SMM

The typical process of SMM is

• first to deposit a layer,
• then pattern it,
• and finally chemically etch away unwanted
material.
• This set of steps can be repeated several
times in order to create complicated
structures, often with moving parts.

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 What is for Today?

Chapter 4: Creating structures—Micromachining

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Surface micromachining and Process flow part 1
 Identify the basic steps of a generic surface
micromachining process  Define the terms
 Identify the critical requirements needed to create a  Structural layer/material
MEMS using surface micromachining  Sacrificial layer/material,
 List common structural material/sacrificial  Release, and
material/etchant combinations used in surface  Die separation
micromachining  Develop a basic-level process flow for creating a simple
 Compare and contrast the relative merits of wet MEMS device
micromachining versus dry micromachining
 Explain the phenomenon of stiction, why it occurs, and
methods for avoiding it
 Describe the process of lift-off
 Explain what is meant by packaging and describe the
ways in which it present major challenges in MEMS

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Lecture#15-16 10/04/2020 5
 Review of surface micromachining process
Surface micromachining example –
Creating a cantilever
Deposit poly-Si (structural layer)

Deposit SiO2 (sacrificial layer)

Remove sacrificial
Etch part of layer (release)
the layer.
Often the most critical

Silicon wafer

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 History and processes The hinge design allows for out-of-plane motion of the
mirror.

• Surface micro-machining (SMM)

• Developed in the early 1980s at the
University of California at Berkeley
• Originally for polysilicon mechanical
structures
many SMM processes have developed their
• Other processes include
own sets of standards, allowing for efficient
o Sandia National Lab’sandSUMMIT
relatively inexpensive fabrication.
(Sandia’s Ultra-planar Multi-level
MEMS Technology)  five levels
possible with four poly layers
o MEMS CAP’s polyMUMPs (Multi User Photo of a PolyMUMPs surface-micromachined micro-mirror.
The hinge design allows for out-of-plane motion of the mirror.
MEMS Processes)  three layers of
poly with a layer of metal

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 Requirements of Material

For a given MEMS device each of these materials may

need to possess certain properties.
For example, the structural material may be
required to exhibit certain electrical and mechanical
properties such as being a good electrical conductor
while exhibiting low levels of mechanical stress.

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 Requirements and advantages
• Three to four different materials required in
addition to the substrate Rs >> Rm > Ri
o Sacrificial material (etch rate Rs)
o Structural mechanical material (etch rate Rm) Best results are obtained when
o Sometimes electrical isolators and/or structural materials are deposited with
insulation materials (etch rate Ri) good step coverage.
For example, buffered oxide etch (BOE) is used to remove
• Many SMM processes are compatible with CMOSSiO2 sacrificial layersChemical
whenvapor deposition
polysilicon (CVD)
is the structural
(complementary metal oxide silicon) technology material. In this case oxide is etchedorat a rate of about 100
used in microelectronics fabrication. nm/min while polysilicon is etched at a rate of only 0.04
Physical vapor deposition (PVD)
nm/min.
• Can more easily integrate with their control
electronics on the same chip
• Many SMM processes have developed their own If PVD
sets of standards Sputtering
or
efficient and inexpensive Evaporation
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 Common material/etchant combinations for surface μ-
machining

Structural material Sacrificial Material Etchant

Buffered oxide
Si/Polysilicon SiO2 etch (BOE) (HF-
NH4F ~ 1:5)
Al Photoresist Oxygen plasma
Phosphosilicate glass
Polyimide HF
(PSG)
Si3N4 Polysilicon XeF2

Typical structural/sacrificial material pairs along with the

associated etchants used for release

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 In surface micromachining methods best results are
obtained when structural materials are deposited with good
step coverage.
• Hence chemical vapor deposition (CVD) methods are
preferred over PVD.
• When PVD methods are employed, sputtering is
preferred over evaporation.

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 Problems and issues with SMM
Wet etching
• 40 years of experience and data in the
semiconductor industry
• Ability to remove surface contaminants
Dry etching
• Better resolution than wet etching
• More directionality (High aspect ratios )

• Very high selectivities • Lower selectivities

• Usually isotropic  always involve • No undercutting
undercutting

Stiction
moisture

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 Stiction
Stiction = static + friction

Stiction = stick + friction

Ways to reduce stiction
An example of an unfavorable scaling • Coat surface with a thin hydrophobic layer in order to repel
liquid
• Dry surfaces using supercritical CO2. Removes fluids
surfacetension  L 1 without allowing surface tension to form.
 ~ 2 ~
restoritive force F L • Use “stand-offC bumps” on the underside of moving
L
parts. Pillars prop movable parts

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 Problems and issues

“Dimple” resulting from a

stand-off bump on the
underside of the cold arm

Polysilicon hotarm actuator created using surface μ-machining

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 Thermal actuators
Thermal actuators are mechanical systems that use the thermally
induced expansion and contraction of materials as a mechanism
for the creation of motion.
These devices are compliant structures, using elastic deformation
and mechanical constraints, that frequently are designed to
amplify the motion generated by thermal expansion or
contraction.
Temperature changes that result in thermal actuation are most
commonly provided by environmental changes or by Joule
heating from electrical current flow.
In the context of nanotechnology, thermal actuators refer to
microscale and nanoscale devices used to mechanically interact
with nanoscale structures, with motion generated by the
thermally induced expansion and contraction of materials.
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 Lift-off
Usually included as an “additive technique” by most authors
1. Photoresist is spun on a wafer and exposed to create
pattern
Resist has either straight side walls.
2. Material deposited through the photoresist mask using a
line-of-sight method, such as evaporation
Thickness of the deposited material must be•thin compared takes
Shadowing to theplace,
resist thickness.
• Part
Most often used to deposit metals, especially those thatofare
thehard
photoresist sidewalls
to etch using must be free of
plasmas
deposited material
3. Photoresist stripped leaving behind only material
deposited through the opening.
(+) or (-)
C resist? 4. Unwanted material is lifted off.

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 Process integration a step-by-step set of instructions to fabricate a device

Not only must we be able to choose the materials and processes to fabricate
a MEMS, but we must also be able to put them in the correct order. A list of
all these necessary fabrication steps in sequential order is called a process
flow.

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 Typical process steps for surface micromachining
• modeling and simulation
• design a layout
• design a mask set

1 thin film formation (by

2 growth or deposition)
3
4
mask
This is where process
lithography
set flow becomes
C
complicated.
etching

die separation release

C
packaging

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 Die separation and packaging
• Must separate the individual devices
• Often saw or scribe the wafer

• Provide MEMS device with electrical

In fact some MEMS professionals claim that one receives
connections
MEMS devices for free and pays for their packaging.
• Protect MEMS from the environment
• Sometimes must also provide limited access
to environment (e.g., pressure sensor, inkjet
print heads)
die separation
• Packaging a difficult engineering problem
C packaging
• Largest cost of producing many (most)
packaging
devices
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 More on packaging

Die-level packaging Wafer-level packaging

packaging

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 More on packaging

Schematic of a packaged MEMS pressure detector

showing some of the requirements unique to MEMS

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