Micro-Electro-Mechanical

NanoTechnology is manipulation of matter on the nanoscale. A nanometer is a very small measure of length – it is one billionth of a meter, a length so small that only three or four atoms lined up in a row would be a nanometer. Another way of thinking about the ultimate form of Mems and Nanotechnology is that it will be based upon molecular machinery – machines made by having every atom in a designed place and performing a designed function. These molecular machines will be capable of making other molecular machines and other products in which the atomic structure is precisely arranged to make the desired product. 

What is MEMS Technology?

Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) is the integration of mechanical elements, sensors, actuators, and electronics on a common silicon substrate through microfabrication technology. While the electronics are fabricated using integrated circuit (IC) process sequences (e.g., CMOS, Bipolar, or BICMOS processes), the micromechanical components are fabricated using compatible "micromachining" processes that selectively etch away parts of the silicon wafer or add new structural layers to form the mechanical and electromechanical devices.

MEMS promises to revolutionize nearly every product category by bringing together silicon-based microelectronics with micromachining technology, making possible the realization of complete systems-on-a-chip. MEMS is an enabling technology allowing the development of smart products, augmenting the computational ability of microelectronics with the perception and control capabilities of micro sensors and microactuators and expanding the space of possible designs and applications.

Microelectronic integrated circuits can be thought of as the "brains" of a system and MEMS augments this decision-making capability with "eyes" and "arms", to allow microsystems to sense and control the environment. Sensors gather information from the environment through measuring mechanical, thermal, biological, chemical, optical, and magnetic phenomena. The electronics then process the information derived from the sensors and through some decision making capability direct the actuators to respond by moving, positioning, regulating, pumping, and filtering, thereby controlling the environment for some desired outcome or purpose. Because MEMS devices are manufactured using batch fabrication techniques similar to those used for integrated circuits, unprecedented levels of functionality, reliability, and sophistication can be placed on a small silicon chip at a relatively low cost.

The Beginner's Guide to MEMS Processing

MEMS technology is based on a number of tools and methodologies, which are used to form small structures with dimensions in the micrometer scale (one millionth of a meter). Significant parts of the technology has been adopted from integrated circuit (IC) technology. For instance, almost all devices are build on wafers of silicon, like ICs. The structures are realized in thin films of materials, like ICs. They are patterned using photolithographic methods, like ICs. There are however several processes that are not derived from IC technology, and as the technology continues to grow the gap with IC technology also grows.

There are three basic building blocks in MEMS technology, which are the ability to deposit thin films of material on a substrate, to apply a patterned mask on top of the films by photolithograpic imaging, and to etch the films selectively to the mask. A MEMS process is usually a structured sequence of these operations to form actual devices. Please follow the links below to read more about deposition, lithography and etching.

• Deposition processes

• Lithography

• Etching processes

DEPOSITION PROCESSES

MEMS Thin Film Deposition Processes

One of the basic building blocks in MEMS processing is the ability to deposit thin films of material. In this text we assume a thin film to have a thickness anywhere between a few nanometer to about 100 micrometer. The film can subsequently be locally etched using processes described in the Lithography and Etching sections of this guide.

MEMS deposition technology can be classified in two groups:

1. Depositions that happen because of a chemical reaction:

o Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD)

o Electrodeposition

o Epitaxy

o Thermal oxidation

These processes exploit the creation of solid materials directly from chemical reactions in gas and/or liquid compositions or with the substrate material. The solid material is usually not the only product formed by the reaction. Byproducts can include gases, liquids and even other solids.

2. Depositions that happen because of a physical reaction:

o Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD)

o Casting

Common for all these processes are that the material deposited is physically moved on to the substrate. In other words, there is no chemical reaction which forms the material on the substrate. This is not completely correct for casting processes, though it is more convenient to think of them that way.

This is by no means an exhaustive list since technologies evolve continuously.

Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD)

In this process, the substrate is placed inside a reactor to which a number of gases are supplied. The fundamental principle of the process is that a chemical reaction takes place between the source gases. The product of that reaction is a solid material with condenses on all surfaces inside the reactor.


The two most important CVD technologies in MEMS are the Low Pressure CVD (LPCVD) and Plasma Enhanced CVD (PECVD). The LPCVD process produces layers with excellent uniformity of thickness and material characteristics. The main problems with the process are the high deposition temperature (higher than 600°C) and the relatively slow deposition rate. The PECVD process can operate at lower temperatures (down to 300° C) thanks to the extra energy supplied to the gas molecules by the plasma in the reactor. However, the quality of the films tend to be inferior to processes running at higher temperatures. Secondly, most PECVD deposition systems can only deposit the material on one side of the wafers on 1 to 4 wafers at a time. LPCVD systems deposit films on both sides of at least 25 wafers at a time. A schematic diagram of a typical LPCVD reactor is shown in the figure.

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    Micro-Electro-Mechanical

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