A new technique to remove the silicon from beneath a large structure, by micromachining for making a suspended microstructure both for thermal, as well as electromagnetic, isolations on a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) chip is reported. Conventional methods require two step front-side etching, an isotropic step, followed by an anisotropic etching step. An alternative technique is based on the backside etching process, which requires extra masks, and processing steps. In order to keep the postprocessing steps to a minimum, a simple technique has been developed that exploits the front-side anisotropic etching to create both undercuttings as well as deep etching in one single step. This method uses the gate oxide and polysilicon layer in CMOS technology as the sacrificial layer for initiating the undercutting needed to make a freestanding microstructure. The microsuspension thickness, width and length of 2 μm, 150 μm×150 μm, respectively, are made out of low-pressure chemical vapor deposition oxide and have been fabricated.
An important problem in silicon micromachining involves fabrication of suspended structures on a chip for both thermal as well as electromagnetic isolations. The problem becomes more pronounced as the size of a suspended structure increase. A new technique to remove the silicon from beneath a large structure, by micromachining for making a suspended microstructure both for thermal, as well as electromagnetic isolations on a CMOS chip is reported. Conventional methods require two steps; front-side etching, isotropic step, followed by an anisotropic etching step. An alternative technique is based on the backside etching process which requires extra masks and processing steps. In order to keep the post-processing steps to a minimum, a simple technique has been developed that exploits the front-side anisotropic etching to a create both under-cuttings as well as deep etching on one single step. This method uses the gate oxide and polysilicon layer in CMOS technology as the sacrificial layer for initiating the under-cutting needed to make a free standing microstructure. The micro-suspension thickness, width and length of 2 micrometers , 150 micrometers X micrometers , respectively, are made out of LPCVD oxide and have been fabricated.
In this article, a micromachining technique is described which is an improvement to our previous technique. It allows metallic sharp and self-aligned tips to be fabricated for use as a gas detector. The fabrication technique has important advantages which makes it applicable to a wide variety application, in particular gas detection. These include simplicity and a low manufacturing cost. These tips were designed and fabricated with standard IC microfabrication technologies. However, the major highlight and achievement is the use of a low-resolution mask to position sharp tips very close to a second electrode in a simple self-aligned process. The detector exhibits a linear sensitivity response. The minimum-measured sensitivity of the detector, for the selected sample gas (CH3COOH), is 14 ppm and this was accomplished at a modest operating voltage of only 5 V. The voltage versus measured current of the detector, reveals a exponential behavior which indicates the field ionization to be responsible for detection process.
In this work, we have developed a simple method to fabricate 3D microstructures which eliminates the use of photoresist as molding material. Our method of pattern transfer exploits the anisotropic etch of silicon using EDP or TMAH which allows fabrication of unique structures that would have not been possible by the photoresist-mold method. In this technology the etched silicon substrate itself is used as the mold for subsequent electroplating process to deposit metallic material such as gold, nickel, or iron-nickel alloy. These electroplated microstructures can be easily removed from the silicon mold by choosing an appropriate seed layer which gives poor adhesion to silicon or silicon dioxide substrate. Using this technology metallic microstructures with thicknesses of 300 micrometers has been fabricated to demonstrate the feasibility. We have also fabricated a sharp tip, pyramidal structures suitable for ionization detectors in an integrated micromachined gas chromatographic system.
Course Instructor
SC236: Polysilicon Surface Micromachine Technology and Devices
This course is designed to introduce newcomers to micromachining technology and concepts as well as those with a basic familiarity with integrated circuit manufacturing technology about the emerging field of Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS). Both manufacturing technologies for these devices and examples of sensor and actuator devices will be presented. The course focuses on polysilicon surface micromachining, but will also include a brief overview of other MEMS manufacturing technologies and devices.
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