What are MEMS?

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) is the integration of mechanical elements, sensors, actuators, and electronics on a common silicon substrate through microfabrication technology.

What are Microsystems (MST)? Tiny, integrated, self-aware, stand-alone products, (based on microfabricated components) that can

Courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories

Microsystems and Nanotechnology

In Europe, Microsystems is the term of choice. Also, Nanotechnology is often used interchangeably with Microsystems and MEMS. Hence the confusion.
Nano Satellites weigh less than 10kg. The units depicted here are about the size of a paperback.

MEMS Vs. Integrated Circuits (ICs)

One way to look at it:
ICs move and sense electrons MEMS move and sense mass

Another:
ICs use Semiconductor processing technologies MEMS can use a variety of processes including Semiconductor but also Bulk, LIGA, Surface Micromachining

Packaging
IC packaging consists of electrical connections in and out of a sealed environment MEMS packaging not only includes input and output of electrical signals, but may also include optical connections, fluidic capillaries, gas channels and openings to the environment. A much greater challenge.

MEMS and ICs

ICs ICs are based on the transistor a basic unit or building block of ICs. Most ICs are Silicon based, depositing a relatively small set of materials. Equipment tool sets and processes are very similar between different IC fabricators and applications there is a dominant front end technology base. MEMS Does not have a basic building block there is no MEMS equivalent of a transistor. Some MEMS are silicon based and use sacrificial surface micromachining (CMOS based) technology. Some MEMS are hybrids (different wafer materials bonded), some are plastic based or ceramic utilizing a variety of processes Surface & bulk micromachining, LIGA, electrodeposition, hot plastic embossing, extrusion on the micro scale etc. There is no single dominant front end technology base but emerging and established MEMS applications have started to self-select dominant front-end technology pathways (MANCEF 2nd Roadmap).

More on What are MEMS?

MEMS devices first took off in the sensor industry. Most MEMS devices have at least one transducer element.
To sense To actuate

Transducer is a device or system that converts one form of energy to another force to voltage, voltage to force,

MEMS Applications
Accelerometers (Inertial Sensors Crash Bags, Navigation, Safety) Ink Jet Print Heads Micro Fluidic Pumps Insulin Pump (drug delivery) Pressure Sensor Auto and Bio applications Spatial Light Modulators (SLMs) MOEM Micro Optical Electro Mechanical Systems DMD Digital Mirror Device DM Deformable Mirror Chem Lab on a Chip Homeland security RF (Radio Frequency) MEMS Low insertion loss switches (High Frequency) Mass Storage Devices

MEMS Pressure Sensors

Pressure Sensors
1960s technology Used primarily in Aerospace industry at the beginning. Companies:
Kulite Honeywell
Makes use of the Micromachining of glass and silicon (bulk etching).

When the automotive industry found that these sensors could help improve engine performance including gas mileage, these systems become more and more useful. Really took off in the 70s when fuel economy starting becoming more important.

Pressure Sensors
TRW Commercial Gas Engine Sensor - 1985

Top view of the TRW (1985) pressure sensor, the metal components are on top of the silicon membrane and are stressed when there is a pressure differential.

Ink Jet
Ink jet printers are MEMS based late 1970s, IBM and HP

The Accelerometer
1987 TRW NovaSensor Accelerometer First generation inertial sensor Poppy seed is on top to show scale.

Analog Devices 1993 Saab was the first automobile company to include MEMS accelerometers to trigger airbags.
A irbag3.avi

Combined standard CMOS technology with MEMS fabrication MEMS-based systems answered the call of government regulated passive restraints in automobiles where these systems sensed rapid deceleration and in the event of a collision sent a signal to inflate rapidly an airbag.

Increasingly Sophisticated Inertial Sensors Are Being Developed

Analog Devices and Bosch are leaders in automotive inertial sensors. Berkeley is a leader in microsystems research at the University level. Inertial sensors measure a change in velocity (acceleration). The first and most prevalent of these is the crash sensor. A more recent application is in IBMs ThinkPad Laptop.

Hard Drive Magnetic Read/Write Heads

By incorporating MEMS actuation, the head can be positioned more quickly and to finer tolerances, this results in higher density data capability.

Micro Machines
Surface Micromachining takes off in the 1990s. These photos are from Sandia National Laboratories

This basically consists of alternating layers of structural materials (poly crystalline silicon) and sacrificial layers (Silicon Dioxide). The sacrificial layer is a scaffold and acts as a temporary support and spacing material. The last step of the process is the release step, where the sacrificial layer is removed freeing the structural layers so they can move.

MEMS as Machines
MEMS are often referred to as Micro Machines. Tiny devices that move things.

View of a surface micro machined device close up of a flip mirror with the legs of a mite. Each gear tooth is 8 microns wide.

MOEMs
Micro Optical Electro Mechanical Systems
MEMS or Microsystems have the potential of having a greater impact on global business and society than did the computer chip. - TI

Development started 1980s, first commercial product - 1996

How Small are these Mirrors?

Pin Point

Each mirror is about 17m square!

Ant Leg
DMD mirrors complete DLP units have over 2 million mirrors all functioning!

1996 Micro Optics Bench

Berkeley

There are two mirrors, three Fresnel lenses and at the far right a semiconductor laser (placed there after the optic fabrication).

Additional Applications of MOEMS

Micro Needles

MEMS needle within the opening of a small hypodermic needle Smaller size reduces pain and tissue damage now there are much smaller MEMS needle arrays. The plastic needle array is made through a standard MEMS fabrication process to make the molds, micro injection process is used to create the arrays. Procter and Gamble Plastic Needle Array

Biomedical Applications
Micromachine needles used to deliver drugs

75 microns

Courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories

Monolithically Integrated ChemLab

Courtesy of Sandia National Laboratories

BioMEMS
The Overlap between microbiology and microsystem feature sizes makes integration between the two possible
Nucleus Ribosome

Eukaryotic cells

Bacteria

Viruses

Proteins

100 m

10 m

1 m

0.1 m

0.01 m (10 nm)

0.001 m (1 nm)

Atom

Surface Micromachining Features (MEMS)

Visible Light

Gate of Leading Edge Transistor

Molecules

Nanotechnology Meets MEMS

Cantilever Sensors
As mass is added to the cantilever shifts the resonance frequency.

A gold dot, about 50 nanometers in diameter, fused to the end of a cantilevered oscillator about 4 micrometers long. A one-molecule-thick layer of a sulfur-containing chemical deposited on the gold adds a mass of about 6 attograms, which is more than enough to measure. Craighead Group/Cornell Univeristy

Detection of a single E.coli Cell

Single Cell on Cantilever AFM of E.Coli Cells

Resonance Shift due to Single Cell

From the webpage of Prof. Harold G. Craighead , School of Applied and Engineering Physics, Cornell University
http://www.hgc.cornell.edu/biomems.html

Detection of Single DNA

Gold dot = 40nm SiN thickness = 90nm

By changing the coating (Nano) one can functionalize the cantilever to detect single strands of DNA. Mass resolution is on the order of under 1 ato gram (10-18grams)
http://www.hgc.cornell.edu/Nems%20Folder/Enumeration%20of%20Single%20DNA.html

Cantilever sensors
Process used to make cantilever sensors Cornell Philip S. Waggoner

Cantilever is the MEMS part functionalizing it is the Nano piece.

Mass Storage - IBM

IBMs Millipede 100 Tera Bit per square inch!

Mass Storage - Nanochip

Currently 15nm X 15nm per bit density

5nm X 5nm in the future

NAND flash is at 100nm X 100nm per bit

Uses 1um Semiconductor equipment

NAND Flash uses 70nm equipment

http://www.nanochip.com/tech.htm

What is a Cantilever?

A Diving Board!

Cantilever
Cantilevers are used as Sensors Cantilevers are used as Switches Many MEMS Sensors use the principles of Cantilevers as well as RF Swtiches

Cantilever
A cantilever is supported at one end (fixed). It has a length, thickness and width (geometry) When a force is applied to the end, it deflects

Cantilevers as Sensors
As sensors, Cantilevers can react to the environment in two ways:
The resonance frequency can shift (due to a change in loading mass) The deflection can shift (due to stress)

Common Observations
Consider this about a diving board
What happens when a little kid bounces on the end of the diving board? What happens when his large dad bounces on the end of the diving board?

Which one has a higher resonance frequency?

MEMS Cantilever sensors

In MEMS Cantilever sensors, the ends of the cantilevers are coated with a layer of probe molecules. When a target molecule is present, it attaches to the probe molecule, thereby increasing the mass. The resonant frequency goes down. You just detected the presence of a molecule!

Actual System
Operation Modes The static mode is used to obtain information regarding the presence of certain target molecules in the sample substance. The surface stress caused by the adsorption of these molecules results in minute deflections of the cantilever. This deflection directly correlates with the concentration of the target substance.

http://www.concentris.com/

The dynamic mode allows quantitative analysis of mass loads in the sub-picogram area. As molecules get adsorbed, minimal shifts in the resonance frequency of an oscillating cantilever can be measured and associated to reference data of the target substance. Both modes can also be operated simultaneously.

This company uses VCSELs as the laser source (Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers).

MEMS cantilevers as biosensors

1 Dr. Urs Hubler, Concentris GmbH, Davidsbodenstrasse 63, CH-4056 Basel, Tel. +41 (0)61 322 06 55, hubler@concentris.ch, www.concentris.com

Reprint from BioWorld 4-2003

Resonance Shift
School of Applied and Engineering Physics and the Nanobiotechnology Center, Cornell University

5 x 15um Cantilever with an E. Coli cell bound to immobilized antibody layer.

Black is the response before cell attachment, Red is after cell attachment.

http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/April04/attograms.ws.html

Resonance Frequency Shift as a Function of Mass

MEMS Cantilevers

Two Concepts of Cantilevers as Sensors

1. Response to Stress

Use a laminate cantilever of dissimilar materials. One material expands or contracts at a different rate as another due to absorption, adsorption, heat Resulting stress gradient (difference in stress) causes the cantilever to bend.
Cantilevers are coated with a material which is selective to what can adhere to it. When the target material adheres to the cantilever, its mass changes resulting in a shift of the cantilevers resonance (natural) frequency.

2. Response to Mass

Applications of MEMS cantilever beams

MEMS cantilevers as biosensors

BioMEMS Virus Detection

February 4, 2004 Purdue researchers create device that detects mass of a single virus particle WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Researchers at Purdue University have developed a miniature device sensitive enough to detect a single virus particle, an advancement that could have many applications, including environmentalhealth monitoring and homeland security.The device is a tiny "cantilever," a diving board-like beam of silicon that naturally vibrates at a specific frequency. When a virus particle weighing about one-trillionth as much as a grain of rice lands on the cantilever, it vibrates at a different frequency, which was measured by the Purdue researchers.

The next step will be to coat a cantilever with the antibodies for a specific virus, meaning only those virus particles would stick to the device. Coating the cantilevers with antibodies that attract certain viruses could make it possible to create detectors sensitive to specific pathogens

BioSensors Single Cantilever

MEMS cantilevers as biosensors

E. Coli How big is this?

MEMS cantilevers as biosensors

MEMS cantilevers as biosensors

Origin of nanomechanical cantilever motion generated from biomolecular interactions: