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Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS)

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MT 09 702

MICRO ELECTRO MECHANICAL


SYSTEMS
(MEMS)

Module-II (14 hours)


FABRICATION TECHNOLOGY
Etching: wet and dry etching methods, selective etching,
directional etching
Deposition methods : Physical and chemical vapour
deposition method
Surface micromachining bulk micro machining,
advanced surface micromachining: LIGA, and DRIE.
electro plating, electroless plating and electro deposition
thin film deposition
Lithography technique: shadow masking, grey scale
lithography.

1. BULK MICROMACHINING

Bulk micromachining is a process that defines


structures by selectively removing /etching a substrate
In MEMS fabrication bulk micromachining uses the
entire thickness of the silicon wafer (or substrate) to
form microsystem structures that can result in high
aspect
ratios.
In
bulk
micromachining
monocrystalline silicon wafers are selectively etched
to form 3-D MEMS devices.
Bulk micromachining is used to remove relatively
large amounts of a silicon substrate.
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Bulk Micromachining Process


Bulk etch is a subtractive process in which
the silicon substrate is selectively
removed.
Specific etchants are chosen that remove
substrate material either isotropic (same
etch rate in all directions) or anisotropic
(etch rate is different for lateral and
vertical direction).
Anisotropic etching depends on the
planes and orientations of the crystal
[(100), (110),(111) planes]
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Etch Rate:
How fast the material is removed in the etch
process
Etch Rate = Thickness before etch - Thickness
after etch
Etch time
Selectivity:
Ratio of the etch rates between the different
materials
= Etch Rate of Material 1
Etch Rate of Material 2

ETCHING
This excess material and the material in unwanted
places must be removed. The removal has to be done
carefully & slowly, as otherwise material may also
be removed from places where it is actually needed.
A fast removal of material may be called dissolution,
while the slow removal that is used in IC
manufacturing is called etching.
Two types of removal techniques are employed in
this. (1) Removal by using liquids, called wet
etching (2) removal by using gases, called dry
etching
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WET ETCHING
In this method, a solution which can etch the material
will be kept in a tank and the wafer will be dipped in the
tank for a given time, at a given temperature. The excess
material will be etched (removed) from the wafer.

10 or 20 or 25 wafers may be etched at the same time.


After etching, the wafers will be taken out and rinsed
in water and dried by spinning.
For almost all materials, there is some solvent which
can etch it.

The wet etching process involves:


Transport of reactants to the surface
Surface reaction
Transport of products from the surface

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In any method, if the wafer is etched for too long, it will


remove too much material. If we want to completely remove
the material, then it is fine. Otherwise, it will-over etch (fig:1).
Similarly, if we etch for short time, it may not remove to the
desired level and it is called under etch.
Both over etch and under etch are undesirable. Ideal etching
should be done (fig:2)

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Anisotropic etchants: (silicon substrates)

Potassium Hydroxide (KOH)


Ethylene Diamine Pyrocathechol (EDP)
Tetramethyl Ammonium Hydroxide (TMAH)
Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH)
N2H4H2O (Hydrazine)

Isotropic etchants : (SiO2, Si3N4 etc..)


HNO3 (Nitric acid)
CH3COOH (Acetic acid)
Hydrofluoric acid (HF)
etchant acid+H2O
(1:1)
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DRY ETCHING
Material removal reactions occur in the
gas phase.
Two types:
Plasma etching
Deep reactive ion etching (DRIE)

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Plasma Etching
Plasma is one of the four fundamental
states of matter.
Plasma is a stream of positive charge
carrying ions with large no: of electrons
and diluted inert carrier gas such as
argon.
Generation of plasma is by cont.
application of high voltage electric charge
/ RF source (13.56MHz).
Generated in low Pr. environment
/vacuum
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Drawback of plasma etching

The etched walls remain at a wide angle


() to its depth.
Cavity angle () is critical in many MEMS
structures
For e.g.: the comb electrodes of micro
grippers should be parallel each other.
Aim = 0

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Deep Reactive Ion


etching (DRIE)

Use nCF2 (fluropolymers)

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Bulk Micromachining Components

The following MEMS components possible only


through the use of bulk micromachining processes.
sensors including micro pressure sensors, cantilever
arrays, and accelerometers
Nozzles
Microfluidic channels
Needle Arrays
Probes
Membranes
Chambers

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2. SURFACE
MICROMACHINING
This technique builds microstructure

by adding materials layer by layer on


top of the substrate.
Sacrificial component, structural
component
SiO2 , PSG (phospho silicate glass)
Polysilicon,metals
2-20um
microcantilever beam
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Surface Micromachining Process

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General process
Etching
of
sacrificia
l layer

Depositi
on of
sacrificia
l layer

Depositi
on of
structur
al layer
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DEPOSITION METHODS
1) CHEMICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION
Depositing thin films over the surface of substrates and other
MEMS and microsystem components is a common and
necessary practice in micromachining.
CVD involves convective heat and mass transfer as well as
diffusion with chemical reactions at the substrate surfaces.
Working principle of CVD
Flow of a gas with diffused reactants over a hot substrate
surface.
Carrier gas
Due to surface temp, chemical reactions happens between the
reactants and surface which leads to formation of film
By products are vented.
3 types
Silicon dioxide
Silicon nitride
{ chemical equations in the text book}
Polycrystalline silicon

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2) PHYSICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION


SPUTTERING
Used to deposit thin metallic film (thickness of 10-10 m)
Sputtering process is carried out with plasma under very low pressure
and low temp
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
This causes the metal ions to evaporate
This metal vapor is then led to the substrate surface and is deposited
after condensation

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There are three basic steps to a PVD process:


The material to be deposited (the source) is converted into vapor
The vapor is transported across a low pressure region from the source
to the substrate
The vapor condenses on the substrate to form the desired thin film.
Sputtering Process
The basic sputtering process includes the following steps:
The substrate is placed in a chamber with the source material (target)
The chamber is evacuated to the desired process pressure (usually a
high vacuum).
An inert gas (such as argon) is introduced.
A plasma is generated using a RF power source. This causes the gas to
ionize.
The ions accelerate toward the target
The high-energy ions bombard the target causing target atoms to break
off as a vapor

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LIGA
Lithographie ( Lithography) Galvanoformung ( Electroforming) Abformung
( Molding)
Non silicon based microstructure
Using X-ray (high penetration power)
example:
Desired product : microthin wall metal tube of square cross section
Taking substrate
Depositing thick film of photoresist material
Photoresist material : polymethylmethacylate (PMMA)
Then placing the desired mask made of silicon nitride having thin film of
gold for blocking X-ray transmission
The deep x-ray dissolves the exposed area
Later electroplating is done (nickel) to produce the tubular product of the
desired thickness
Then removing the photoresist material (PMMA) by oxygen plasma or 30

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Substrate material of LIGA :


Base plate
Electrical conductor- bcoz electrical conduction of the substrate is
necessary in order to facilitate electroplating which is a part of the LIGA
process
Austenite steel, silicon wafers with thin titanium top layer, copper plated
with gold, titanium, nickel
Photo resist material :
Must be sensitive to x-ray radiation
Must have high resolution
High resistance to wet and dry etching
Thermal stability (1400c)
The unexposed resist must be absolutely insoluble during development
It must exhibit very good adhesion to the substrate during electroplating
Advantages of LIGA:
High aspect ratio
Flexible microstructure configurations and geometry is possible
The only technique that allows the production of metallic microstructure
The best manufacturing process for mass production

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ELECTROPLATING & ELECTROLESS PLATING


Notes given at the time of lecture

LITHOGRAPHY
It is a general name given to processes used to transfer patterns on to a
substrate to define structures that make up devices
Optical lithography: Uses light
Electron Beam lithography: Uses electrons
Ion beam lithography: Uses energetic ions to bombard and pattern
surfaces
Soft lithography: Uses mechanical contact indentation to transfer
patterns

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PHOTOLITHOGRAPHY

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GRAYSCALE LITHOGRAPHY
Grayscale lithography is a process for fabricating complex 3D structures in
photosensitive polymers (photoresists).
As opposed to standard binary lithography (where photoresist is exposed
to either all or none of the light), grayscale lithography allows for
controlling the intensity of light in each region.
This results in the ability to vary the depth at which the photoresist is
developed.
Curved structures such as ramps, domes, and microfluidic devices that
would otherwise be impossible or too time intensive to fabricate can
readily be produced.

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Grayscale lithography changes exposure dose locally to develop the 3D


structure in the photoresist. So differential exposure dose make differential
depth of exposed photoresist across the surface.
This is because the photoactive compound is absorbing the ultraviolet light
energy as it travels in the depth of the photoresist. By using chrome-onglass (COG) masks, which induces diffraction, the ultraviolet intensity can
be modulated.
gray-scale lithography is using diffraction to modulate intensity of the
ultraviolet
diffraction is the bending, spreading and interference of waves when they
pass by an
obstruction or through a gap
if wave source is passing through single slit, which is narrower than
wavelength of wave,
bending & spreading of waves to pass around obstacle form semicircular
ripple. This is the diffraction pattern, and it is approximately equally strong
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The intensity passing through the mask is dependent on the fill area
of each pitch.
For example, if the mask is designed with square pixels and a set
pitch between pixels as is shown in, then the intensity depends on
the percentage of the opaque area for each pitch area.
In this case the pitch is chosen to be below the resolution of the
projection system so that the distance between each pixel remains
below resolution. So, the pixel size can be modified to modulate
directly the intensity passing through the objective lens.

Another method to change the intensity is to keep the size of the


pixel constant and change only the pitch, or it is possible to change
both the size and the pitch.

Actually, first method, changing only pixel size is easy to design the
mask.

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SHADOW MASK LITHOGRAPHY


Stencil lithography is a novel method of fabricating nanometer scale
patterns using nanostencils, stencils (shadow mask) with nanometer size
apertures.
It is a resist-less, simple, parallel nanolithography process, and it does
not involve any heat or chemical treatment of the substrates (unlike
resist-based techniques).
Stencil lithography was first reported in a scientific journal as a microstructuring technique by S. Gray and P. K. Weimer in 1959.
They used long stretched metallic wires as shadow masks during metal
deposition. Various materials can be used as membranes, such as
metals, Si and polymers.
Today the stencil apertures can be scaled down to sub-micrometer size
at full 4" wafer scale. This is called a nanostencil.
Nano-scale stencil apertures have been fabricated using laser
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interference lithography (LIL), electron beam lithography, and focused

Process
Several process are available using stencil lithography: material
deposition and etching, as well as implantation of ions. Different stencil
requirements are necessary for the various processes, e. g. an extra etchresistant layer on the backside of the stencil for etching (if the membrane
material is sensitive to the etching process) or a conductive layer on the
backside of the stencil for ion implantation.
Deposition
The main deposition method used with stencil lithography is physical
vapor deposition. This includes thermal and electron beam physical vapor
deposition, molecular beam epitaxy, sputtering, and pulsed laser
deposition. The more directional the material flux is, the more accurate
the pattern is transferred from the stencil to the substrate.
Etching
Reactive ion etching is based on ionized, accelerated particles that etch
both chemically and physically the substrate. The stencil in this case is
used as a hard mask, protecting the covered regions of the substrate,
while allowing the substrate under the stencil apertures to be etched.

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Ion implantation
Here the thickness of the membrane has to be smaller than the
penetration length of the ions in the membrane material. The ions will
then implant only under the stencil apertures, into the substrate.
Challenges
Despite it being a versatile technique, there are still several challenges
to be addressed by stencil lithography. During deposition through the
stencil, material is deposited not only on the substrate through the
apertures but also on the stencil backside, including around and inside
the apertures. This reduces the effective aperture size by an amount
proportional to the deposited material, leading ultimately to aperture
clogging.
The accuracy of the pattern transfer from the stencil to the substrate
depends on many parameters. The material diffusion on the substrate
(as a function of temperature, material type, evaporation angle) and the
geometrical setup of the evaporation are the main factors. Both lead to
an enlargement of the initial pattern, called blurring.

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