Introduction to MEMS

November 1, 2014
INTRODUCTION TO MEMS
1 Introduction
MEMS is a process technology used to create tiny integrated devices or systems that
combine mechanical and electrical components. They are fabricated using integrated
circuit (IC) batch processing techniques and can range in size from a few micrometers
to millimetres. These devices (or systems) have the ability to sense, control and actuate
on the micro scale, and generate effects on the macro scale.
The interdisciplinary nature of MEMS utilizes design, engineering and manufac-
turing expertise from a wide and diverse range of technical areas including integrated
circuit fabrication technology, mechanical engineering, materials science, electrical en-
gineering, chemistry and chemical engineering, as well as uid engineering, optics,
instrumentation and packaging. The complexity of MEMS is also shown in the ex-
tensive range of markets and applications that incorporate MEMS devices. MEMS
can be found in systems ranging across automotive, medical, electronic, communi-
cation and defence applications. Current MEMS devices include accelerometers for
airbag sensors, inkjet printer heads, computer disk drive read/write heads, projection
display chips, blood pressure sensors, optical switches, microvalves, biosensors and
many other products that are all manufactured and shipped in high commercial vol-
umes.
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MEMS, an acronym that originated in the United States, is also referred to as Mi-
crosystems Technology (MST) in Europe and Micromachines in Japan. Regardless of
terminology, the uniting factor of a MEMS device is in the way it is made. While the
device electronics are fabricated using computer chip IC technology, the microme-
chanical components are fabricated by sophisticated manipulations of silicon and other
substrates using micromachining processes. Processes such as bulk and surface mi-
cromachining, as well as high-aspect-ratio micromachining (HARM) selectively re-
move parts of the silicon or add additional structural layers to form the mechanical and
electromechanical components. While integrated circuits are designed to exploit the
electrical properties of silicon, MEMS takes advantage of either silicons mechanical
properties or both its electrical and mechanical properties.
In the most general form, MEMS consist of mechanical microstructures, mi-
crosensors, microactuators and microelectronics, all integrated onto the same silicon
chip.Microsensors detect changes in the systems environment by measuring mechan-
ical, thermal, magnetic, chemical or electromagnetic information or phenomena. Mi-
croelectronics process this information and signal the microactuators to react and create
some form of changes to the environment.
2 History of Mems
The historical progress of Mems is shown below [?]
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1958: Silicon strain gauges commercially available
1961: First silicon pressure sensor demonstrated
1967: Invention of surface micromachining. Westinghouse creates the Resonant Gate
Field Effect Transistor, (RGT). Description of use of sacricial material
to free micromechanical devices from the silicon substrate
1970: First silicon accelerometer demonstrated
1979 First micromachined inkjet nozzle
1982: Disposable blood pressure transducer
1982: Silicon as a Mechanical Material Instrumental paper to entice the scientic
community - reference for material properties and etching data for silicon.
1982: LIGA Process
1988: First MEMS conference
1992: MCNC starts the Multi-User MEMS Process (MUMPS) sponsored by
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
1992: First micromachined hinge
1993: First surface micromachined accelerometer sold (Analog Devices, ADXL50)
1994: Deep Reactive Ion Etching is patented
1995: BioMEMS rapidly develops
2000: MEMS optical-networking components become big business
3 MEMS Fabrication
MEMS fall into three general classications; bulk micromachining, surface microma-
chining and high-aspect-ratio micromachining (HARM), which includes technology
such as LIGA (a German acronym from Lithographie, Galvanoformung, Abformung
translated as lithography, electroforming and moulding).
Conventional macroscale manufacturing techniques e.g. injection moulding,
turning, drilling etc, are good for producing three dimensional (3D) shapes and ob-
jects, but can be limited in terms of low complexity for small size applications. MEMS
fabrication, by comparison, uses high volume IC style batch processing that involves
the addition or subtraction of two dimensional layers on a substrate (usually silicon)
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based on photolithography and chemical etching. As a result, the 3D aspect of MEMS
devices is due to patterning and interaction of the 2D layers. Additional layers can be
added using a variety of thin-lm and bonding techniques as well as by etching through
sacricial spacer layers.
3.1 Basic MEMS Microfabrication Processes
3.1.1 Deposition Processes
Depositing thin lms over the surface of substrates and other MEMS components is
a common practice in micromachining.Deposition adds thin lms instead of consum-
ing the substrates unlike diffusion and thermal oxidation processes.
There are generally two types of deposition processes in micromachining. These
are (a) chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and (b) physical vapor deposition (PVD).
PVD involves the direct impingement of particles on the hot substrate surfaces. CVD,
on the other hand, involves convective heat and mass transfer as well as diffusion with
chemical reactions at the substrate surfaces.
a)Chemical Vapor Deposition
Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) involves the ow of a gas with diffused reac-
tants over a hot substrate surface. While the carrier gas ows over the hot solid surface,
the energy supplied by the temperature causes chemical reactions of the reactants.The
reaction of these species produces a solid phase, which is absorbed to the surface. The
by-products of the chemical reactions are removed. Continuous reaction causes a layer
of material to be built on the wafer surface.
For example , deposition of Silicon Nitride on Silicon substrates is done by the
following chemical reaction.
3SiH
4
+ 4NH
3
Si
3
N
4
+ 12H
2
(700 to 900

C)
4
Apart from CVD at atmospheric pressure(APCVD), there are two variants of
CVD. They are (1) Low pressure CVD (LPCVD) and (2) Plasma-enhanced CVD
(PECVD). In LPCVD , the reaction takes place at very low pressures of the order of 1
to 8 torr. The reduction of gas pressure will increase the rate of deposition. PECVD
utilizes the radio-frequency (RF) plasma to transfer energy into the reactant gases
which allows the substrates to remain at lower temperature.
b) Physical Vapor Deposition
Sputtering is a process that is often used to deposit thin metallic lms of the
order of hundreds of angstroms. Plasma is made of positively charged gas ion. The
positive ions of the metal in an inert argon gas carrier bombard the surface of the target
at high velocity that the momentum transfer on impingement causes the metal ions to
evaporate.The metal vapor is then led to the substrate surface and is deposited after
condensation.
3.1.2 Pattern Transfer
Integrated circuits and microfabricated MEMS devices are formed by dening patterns
in the various layers created by wafer-level process steps [?] . Pattern transfer consists
of two parts: a photo-process, whereby the desired pattern is photographically trans-
ferred from an optical plate to a photosensitive lm coating the wafer, and a chemical
or physical process of either removing materials to create the pattern. Most processes
remove unwanted material by etching away chemically.
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Photolithography
Optical lithography is very much like the photographic process of producing a
print from a negative. The enabling materials of optical lithography are photoresists,
polymeric optically-sensitive materials that are deposited onto the wafer surface by
spin casting. Following spinning, the resists are prebaked at low temperature to re-
move solvent, but are not fully hardened. Completion of the hardening process occurs
after optical exposure.
Figure 1 illustrates the lithographic process analogous to contact printing.A pho-
tomask contains the pattern to be transferred as a set of opaque and transparent regions.
It is brought into contact with an oxidized silicon wafer coated with photoresist. Ul-
traviolet light is directed through the mask onto the wafer, exposing the unprotected
portions of the resist, which change their chemical properties as a result of the light ex-
posure.The photochemical processes in the photoresist are relatively high in contrast,
and develop sharp boundaries between exposed and protected regions. Contact lithog-
raphy is one of the standard processes used in MEMS manufacture.
Figure 1: Contact Photolithography
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There are two types of photolithography as illustrated in gure 2a Negative pho-
toresist functions much like the photographic printing process. The regions of the
photoresist that are exposed to the ultraviolet light become cross-linked and insolu-
ble in the developer, while the protected regions remain soluble. After immersion in
the developer or exposure to a continuous spray of developer, the soluble portions are
removed.
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(a) Negative Photoresist
(b) Positive Photoresist
Figure 2: Photolithography using Negative and Positive Photoresists
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The net result is a transfer of pattern into the photoresist so that after etching, the
opaque regions of the mask become regions cleared of photoresist.
To transfer the pattern into the oxide, the resist must rst be hardened by baking to
make it more chemically inert. After this postbake, the silicon dioxide can be removed
by an etching process.Following the etching, the photoresist is removed, leaving the
mask pattern transferred into the oxide layer.
Positive photoresist works oppositely to negative photoresist. The chemistry of the
photoresist is different. Regions exposed to the UV light become more soluble in the
developer than the protected regions. After development and postbake, the protected
regions of resist remain on the wafer so that after etching, the opaque regions of the
mask remain as oxide and the clear regions are removed.
Because direct contact between the wafer and the mask can eventually cause dam-
age to the mask, a variant of the contact lithography is to leave a small air gap between
the mask and the photoresist-covered wafer. This is called proximity lithography [?].
The achievable resolution is somewhat less than with contact lithography, because
diffraction can occur at the edges of the opaque regions.When using contact lithog-
raphy, the mask must be the same size as the wafer, and every feature to be transferred
must be placed on the mask at its exact nal size.
Electron Beam Lithography
Electron beam lithography ( e-beam lithography) is the practice of scanning a
beam of electrons in a patterned fashion across a surface covered with a lm ( re-
sist), [?] ("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
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form of maskless lithography has found wide usage in photomask-making used in pho-
tolithography, low-volume production of semiconductor components, and research and
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.
Track Technology
Ion track technology is a deep cutting tool with a resolution limit around 8 nm ap-
plicable to radiation resistant minerals, glasses and polymers. It is capable to generate
holes in thin lms without any development process. Structural depth can be dened
either by ion range or by material thickness. Aspect ratios up to several 104 can be
reached. The technique can shape and texture materials at a dened inclination angle.
Random pattern, single-ion track structures and aimed pattern consisting of individual
single tracks can be generated.
X-ray Lithography
X-ray lithography, is a process used in electronic industry to selectively remove
parts of a thin lm. It uses X-rays to transfer a geometric pattern from a mask to a
light-sensitive chemical photoresist, or simply "resist," on the substrate. A series of
chemical treatments then engraves the produced pattern into the material underneath
the photoresist.
3.1.3 Etching
Etching is one of the most important processes in microfabrication.It involves the
removal of materials in desired areas by physical or chemical means. It establishes
permanent patterns developed at the substrate by photolithography.There are two types
of etching techniques. They are (1) Chemical or Wet Etching and (2)Physical or Dry
Etching .
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In plasma etching, high energy plasma containing gas molecules, free electrons,
and gas ions bombards the surface of the target substrate and knock off the substrate
material from its surface.
1)Wet Etching
Wet etching involves using solutions with diluted chemicals to dissolve substrates.
For example, diluted hydrouoric (HF) solution is used to dissolve SiO
2
, Si
3
N
4
etc.
whereas potassium peroxide (KOH) is used to etch the silicon substrates as described
in section (1.3.1)
In wet etching, the part of the substrate that is not covered by the protective
mask id dissolved in the etchants and removed.The etching can undercut the part that
is immediately under the protective mask after a lengthy period of time.
(a) Substrate in wet etching (b) Partially etched substrate
Figure 3: Wet Etching
Isotropic Wet Etching
Isotropic etchants etch the material at the same rate in all directions, and con-
sequently remove material under the etch masks at the same rate as they etch through
the material; this is known as undercutting . The most common form of isotropic
silicon etch is HNA,which comprises a mixture of hydrouoric acid (HF), nitric acid
(HNO3) and acetic acid(CH3COOH). Isotropic etchants are limited by the geometry
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of the structure to be etched. Etch rates can slow down and in some cases (for example,
in deep and narrow channels) they can stop due to diffusion limiting factors. However,
this effect can be minimized by agitation of the etchant, resulting in structures with
near perfect and rounded surfaces.
Figure 4: Under Cut during Wet etching
Anisotropic Wet Etching
Anisotropic etchants etch faster in a preferred direction. Potassium hydroxide
(KOH) is the most common anisotropic etchant as it is relatively safe to use. Struc-
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tures formed in the substrate are dependent on the crystal orientation of the substrate or
wafer. Most such anisotropic etchants progress rapidly in the crystal direction perpen-
dicular to the (110) plane and less rapidly in the direction perpendicular to the (100)
plane. The direction perpendicular to the (111) plane etches very slowly if at all. Fig-
ures 19c and 19d shows examples of anisotropic etching in (100) and (110) silicon.
Silicon wafers, originally cut from a large ingot of silicon grown from single seed sili-
con, are cut according to the crystallographic plane. They can be supplied in terms of
the orientation of the surface plane.
Figure 5: Crystallographic Planes in Silicon
2)Dry Etching
Dry etching relies on vapour phase or plasma-based methods of etching using
suitably reactive gases or vapours usually at high temperatures. The most common
form for MEMS is Reactive Ion Etching (RIE) which utilizes additional energy in the
form of radio frequency (RF) power to drive the chemical reaction. Energetic ions are
accelerated towards the material to be etched within a plasma phase supplying the ad-
ditional energy needed for the reaction; as a result the etching can occur at much lower
temperatures (typically 150 - 250

C) ,sometimes room temperature) than those usu-

ally needed (above 1000

C). RIE is not limited by the crystal planes in the silicon, and
as a result, deep trenches and pits, or arbitrary shapes with vertical walls can be etched .
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Figure 6: Reactive Ion Etching(RIE)
Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE) is a much higher-aspect-ratio etching method
that involves an alternating process of high-density plasma etching (as in RIE) and
protective polymer deposition to achieve greater aspect ratios.
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Figure 7: Deep Reactive Ion Etching(DRIE)
Chemically reactive vapors are some times used as etchants.This technique is
called Vapor Etching.There is one vapor etchant that has become commercially im-
portant in micromachining processes. The gas xenon diouride,XeF
2
is a highly se-
lective vapor etchant for silicon, with virtually no attack of metals, silicon dioxide, or
other materials [?]. As a result, it is ideal for the dry release of surface micromachined
structures in which polysilicon is used as the sacricial layer. This process is used in
the manufacture of the electrostatically actuated projection display chip .
3.2 Basic MEMS Manufacturing Technologies
3.2.1 Bulk Micromachining
Bulk micromachining is an important class of MEMS process. In bulk micromachining
processes, a portion of the substrate(bulk) is removed in order to create freestanding
mechanical structures (beams and membranes) or unique three-dimensional features
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(such as cavities , through-wafer holes, and mesas).Bulk micromachining can be ap-
plied to silicon, glass, gallium arsenide and other materials of interests.
There are two major categories of processes for bulk silicon etching. They are Wet
Etching and Dry Etching.Wet silicon etching processes use liquid chemical solutions
in contact with silicon as described in page 11. Dry etching processes use plasma (high
energy gas containing ionized radicals) or vapor-phase etchants to remove materials
as described in page 13. So the various microfabrication processes involved in bulk
micromachining technique are isotropic wet etching, anisotropic wet etching,Reactive
Ion Etching (RIE), Deep Reactive Ion Etching etc.
3.2.2 Surface Micromachining
Unlike Bulk micromachining, where a silicon substrate (wafer) is selectively etched
to produce structures, surface micromachining builds microstructures by deposition
and etching of different structural layers on top of the substrate [?]. Generally polysil-
icon is commonly used as one of the layers and silicon dioxide is used as a sacricial
layer which is removed or etched out to create the necessary void in the thickness direc-
tion. Added layers are generally very thin with their size varying from 2-5 Micro me-
tres. The main advantage of this machining process is the possibility of realizing mono-
lithic microsystems in which the electronic and the mechanical components(functions)
are built in on the same substrate. The surface micromachined components are smaller
compared to their counterparts, the bulk micromachined ones.
As the structures are built on top of the substrate and not inside it, the substrates prop-
erties are not as important as in bulk micromachining, and the expensive silicon wafers
can be replaced by cheaper substrates, such as glass or plastic. The size of the substrates
can also be much larger than a silicon wafer, and surface micromachining is used to
produce TFTs on large area glass substrates for at panel displays. This technology
can also be used for the manufacture of thin lm solar cells, which can be deposited on
glass, but also on PET substrates or other non-rigid materials.
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3.2.3 High Aspect Ratio(HAR) Micromachining
HAR Micromachining is used to increase the aspect ratio of structures. The main
HAR process used now are LIGA and SLIGA processes.
LIGA process
The LIGA process for manufacturing MEMS and microsystems does not have the ma-
jor short comings of surface micromachining and bulk micromachining. These major
short comings are 1) low geometric aspect ratio and 2) the use of silicon-based ma-
terials.This process offers a a great potential for manufacturing non-silicon-based mi-
crostructures. The single most important feature of this process is that it can produce
thick microstructures that have extremely at and parallel surfaces such as microgear
trains, motors and generators.
The term LIGA is an acronym for the German terms Lithography (Lithographie),
electroforming (Galvanoformung), and molding(Abformung).
Figure 8: Major fabrication steps in the LIGA process
As shown in gure 8 , the LIGA process begins with deep x-ray lithography that
sets the desired patterns on a thick lm of photoresist. X-rays are used as the light
source in photolithography because of their short wavelength, which provides higher
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penetration power into the photoresist materials This high penetration power is neces-
sary for high resolution in lithography and for a high aspect ratio in the depth The short
wavelength of x-ray allows an aspect ratio of more than 100:1 to be achieved.
The LIGA process outlined in gure may be demonstrated bya a specic example
as illustrated in gure 9. The desired product in this example is a microthin-wall metal
tube of square cross-section.The process begins by depositing a thick lm of photresist
material on the surface of a substrate as shown in gure 9 (b).A popular photoresist
material that is sensitive to x-ray is polymethylmethacrylate(PMMA). Masks are used
in the x-ray lithography. Most masking materials are transparent to x-rays , so it is
necessary to apply a thin lm of gold to the area that will block x-ray transmission.
The thin mask used for this purpose is silicon nitride with a thickness varying from
1-1.5m.
The deep x-ray lithography will cause the exposed area to be dissolved in the sub-
sequent development of the resist material gure 9 (c). The PMMA photoresist after
the development will have the outline of the product, i.e. the outside prole of the
tube.This is followed by electroplating of the PMMA photoresist with a desired metal,
usually nickel, to produce the tubular product of the required wall thickness gure 9
(d). The desired tubular product is produced after the removal of the photoresist materi-
als(PMMA in this case)by oxygen plasma or chemical solvents.For most applicatioons
the desired product is metal molds for subsequent injection molding of microplastic
products as shown in gure 8.
SLIGA process
From gures 8 and 9, the nished product, whether it is a microstructure or a
metal mold, is attached to the substrate, or base plate.The attachment to the electrically
conductive substrate is necessary for the electroplating process. However, this attach-
ment is considered as a redundancy in the LIGA process. For instance, the hollow
square tube produced in the LIGA process as described in gure 9 would not be sepa-
rated after electroplating of metal lm on the inner walls . A modied process called
sacricial LIGA (SLIGA) has been developed to solve this problem. The principle of
SLIGA is to introduce a sacricial layer between the PMMA resist and the substrate
thereby to allow the separation of the nished mold from the substrate after the electro-
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plating. The separation is achieved by the removal of the sacricial layer by etching.
Polyimide with a metal-lm coating is used as a common sacricial layer material for
that purpose.
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Figure 9: Major steps in the LIGA process
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