Analysis and Design Principles of MEMS Devices

devices.

Chapter 1

Introduction to MEMS Devices

MEMS, the acronym of Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, are generally considered as micro systems consisting of micro mechanical sensors, actuators and micro electronic circuits. As microelectronics is a well-developed technology, the research and development of MEMS is concentrated on the research and development of micro mechanical sensors and actuators, or micro mechanical transducers. Or, we can say that micro mechanical sensors and actuators are the basic devices for MEMS (Note that the word transducer is often used as a synonym of sensor. However, it is sometimes read as sensors and actuators.) Therefore, this book studies the analysis and design principles of the basic devices of MEMS, the micro mechanical sensors and actuators (or the micro mechanical transducers).

Before we can study the fundamental theories of micro mechanical transducers, readers are expected to have some basic knowledge on micro transducers. This chapter is to give the readers some material to get familiar with some important MEMS devices.

Generally, the scope of MEMS devices is very broad. As MEMS devices are the offspring of microelectronics and micro mechanical technologies, the most important MEMS devices are sensors using piezoresistive, capacitive and vibration sensing schemes, and the actuators using electrostatic driving. This introduction and the theories studied in the following chapters will be restricted in these respects.

It is assumed that the readers have had enough knowledge on microelectronics and micro machining technologies so that they can understand the schematic drawings of the device structures and the processing steps for the devices in this chapter.

For those who do not have enough knowledge on microelectronics and micro mechanical technologies, reading of relevant material [1,2,3] prior to this study is advisable. On the contrary, for those who are quite familiar with MEMS devices already, they may skip this chapter and proceed to Chapter 2 directly.

§1.1 Piezoresistive Pressure Sensor

§1.1.1 Piezoresistance Effect

(1) Metal Strain Gauge

The metal strain gauge was discovered long before the discovery of the piezoresistance effect in semiconductors and has still been widely used for mechanical transducers in industries. Due to the affinity between metal strain gauge sensors and piezoresistive sensors, the metal strain gauge is first briefly introduced in this section.

Consider a metal filament with a circular cross section. If the radius of the cross section is r, the length of the filament is l and the resistivity of the material is ρ, the resistance of the filament is R=ρl/πr². If the filament is stretched by an external force F, the stress in the filament is T=F/πr² and the strain (the relative elongation) in the filament is ε≡ Δl/l=T/E, where E is the Young’s Modulus of the material. As metal is usually a polycrystalline material with a fine grain structure, its mechanical and electrical properties are isotropic. Thus, the relative change in resistance caused by the force is

As well known in mechanics, the longitudinal stretch of a filament is always accompanied with it a lateral contraction, i.e. Δr/r = −v(Δl/l), where v is the Poisson ratio of the material. For most materials, vhas a value of about 0.3. Thus we have

Usually, the relative change of resistivity, Δρ/ρ, is a function of stress/strain and is expressed as πT = πEε, where π is the piezoresistive coefficient of the material. Therefore, we have

where G, the relative change in resistance per unit strain, is referred to as the gauge factor, or, G factor, of the filament.

As π is negligible for metal materials, the gauge factor is just a little larger than unity, i.e., G ≈ 1 + 2v = 1.5 ∼ 2.0. As the maximum strain of the gauge is in the order of 10−3, the relative change of the resistance is also in the order of 10−3.

(2) Strain Gauge Sensors

Strain gauges can be made of metal foil as well as metal wire. Fig. 1.1.1(a) and (b) schematically show a force sensor using four metal foil strain gauges as sensing elements. The strain gauges R1 ∼ R4 are glue-bonded onto the metal beam supported by a metal cylinder. The strain gauges are interconnected into a Wheatstone bridge as shown in Figure 1.1.1(c). As the output of the bridge, ΔV, is proportional to the force F, a force sensor is formed.

Fig. 1.1.1 A strain gauge force sensor (a) cross-sectional view (insert: the serpentine pattern of a metal foil strain gauge); (b) top-view; (c) Wheatstone bridge

As the strain gauges are bonded onto the mechanical structure that is fabricated by conventional machining technique, the strain gauge force sensor is referred to as a conventional mechanical sensor.

(3) Piezoresistance Effect

S. C. Smith discovered in 1954 that the change in resistance of a strained (or stressed) germanium or silicon filament was much larger than that of a metal strain gauge [4]. He discovered that the change in resistance was mainly caused by the change in resistivity of the material instead of the change of the geometric dimensions.

Therefore, the effect is referred to as the piezoresistance effect. Though piezoresistance effect is quite similar to the strain gauge effect of metal but the difference between them is significant

(a) The effect of metal strain gauge is caused by the geometric deformation of the resistor, whereas piezoresistance effect is caused by the change in resistivity of the material. As a result, the effect of piezoresistance can be two orders of magnitude larger than that of the metal strain gauge effect.

(b) The effect of metal strain gauge is isotropic whereas the effect of piezoresistance is generally anisotropic. This means that, (ΔR/R), (π) and (I) are tensors and the relation among them, (ΔR/R)≅(π)(T), is a tensor equation. Further discussion on the piezoresistive tensors of silicon will be given in Chapter 6.

With the discovery of piezoresistance effect, people realized that the large effect of resistance change would have important applications in sensors, especially in mechanical sensors dominated at that time by metal strain gauges. Soon a semiconductor piezoresistive sensing element (a semiconductor strain gauge or a piezoresistor) was developed and found applications in mechanical sensors. Though a semiconductor strain gauge has much higher sensitivity than a metal one, the metal strain gauge matches the metal substrate better and shows better stability than a semiconductor strain gauge. Therefore, semiconductor strain gauge has not been successful in replacing the metal strain gauge sensors.

§1.1.2 Piezoresistive Pressure Transducer

(1) Silicon as a Mechanical Material

With the rapid development of silicon technology in the 1960s, the excellent mechanical properties of silicon material were understood in addition to its versatile electrical and thermal properties. Therefore, efforts were made to make use of silicon as a mechanical material. First, piezoresistors were made by selective diffusion into a silicon wafer by planar process so that the silicon wafer could be used as a mechanical diaphragm with integrated piezoresistors on it. When the diaphragm was bonded to a glass or metal constraint by epoxy as schematically shown in Fig. 1.1.2, a pressure transducer was formed [5]. For the first time, silicon was used as both the mechanical and the sensing material in a sensor.

Fig. 1.1.2 A pressure transducer using a silicon diaphragm

Significant progress was made around 1970 when the silicon substrate with sensing elements on it was shaped by mechanical drilling to form an integrated diaphragm-constraint complex [6]. A pressure transducer formed by this technique is schematically shown in Fig. 1.1.3. As the whole structure is made out of bulk silicon material, the mechanical performance of the device is greatly improved.

Fig. 1.1.3 A silicon piezoresistive pressure transducer made out of a bulk silicon material

(2) Micro Mechanical Pressure Sensor

The processing technology for the silicon structure shown in Fig. 1.1.3 was further improved in the mid-1970s when anisotropic etching technology was used for silicon pressure transducers. By using anisotropic etching, silicon pressure transducers could be batch-fabricated with the planar process steps, such as oxidation, diffusion, photolithography, etc., originally developed for silicon transistors and integrated circuits [7,8]. Thanks to the advanced micro fabrication technology, the dimensions of pressure sensors are reduced significantly. The silicon chip of the pressure sensor is schematically shown in Fig. 1.1.4.

Fig. 1.1.4 A micro mechanical silicon piezoresistive pressure transducer

As the dimensions of the mechanical structures processed can be controlled to an accuracy in the order of microns, the technologies are often referred to as micro machining technologies. Some basic features of the pressure transducer shown in Fig. 1.1.5 are:

Fig. 1.1.5 Detailed illustrations for a typical silicon pressure transducer (a) bottom view; (b) top view; (c) cross-sectional view; (d) Wheatstone bridge

(i) The silicon material can be used for the mechanical structure as well as sensing elements and electronic components;

(ii) The mechanical structure of silicon can be batch-fabricated by micromachining technologies.

Numerous improvements and innovations have been made for silicon pressure transducers in the years followed and the production volume of silicon pressure transducers has been growing steadily since then, but the basic features remain unchanged even today, i.e., the structure of the silicon pressure transducer shown in Fig. 1.1.4 is basically a typical structure of a present-day silicon pressure transducer. For further understanding the working principles of the device, more detailed illustrations are given in Fig. 1.1.5.

, where d is the depth of the cavity. Therefore, the size of the diaphragm can be controlled by the size of the etching window and the etching depth.

Fig. 1.1.5(b) shows the front side of the chip (for clarity, the area of the diaphragm is delineated by dotted lines). Schematically shown on the right-hand side of the diaphragm are four piezoresistors formed by boron diffusion or ion implantation on an n-type silicon diaphragm. The cross section along the AA′ line is shown in Fig. 1.1.5(c). The four piezoresistors are interconnected using Al lines to form a Wheatstone bridge as schematically shown in Fig. 1.1.5(d). The four bonding pads on frame are used to connect the Wheatstone bridge to outside by wire bonding for power supply and signal output.

When a pressure is applied on top of the sensor chip, i.e., the pressure on the front is larger than that on the back of the diaphragm by Δp, the silicon diaphragm will bend downwards. This causes stress in the diaphragm. The stress, in turn, causes a change in resistance of the resistors. For a typical layout as shown in Fig. 1.1.5(b), the resistance of R2 and R3 goes up and that of R1 and R4 goes down by ΔR. Thus, the output of the Wheatstone bridge is

As ΔR and, in turn, ΔV is in proportion to the pressure difference Δp, the device is a pressure transducer.

Generally, the output of the bridge can be more than 100 mV with good linearity for a 5V power supply. This usually determines the nominal maximum operation range of silicon pressure sensors. The operation range of a pressure transducer is usually from 1 kPa to 50 MPa determined basically by the size and the thickness of the diaphragm.

(3) Gauge-, Absolute- and Differential- Pressure Transducers

Before the sensor chips can be put into practical applications, they must be encapsulated. An example of the encapsulated pressure transducer is shown in Fig. 1.1.6. The silicon sensor chip is first electrostatically bonded to a glass plate with a hole at center. The chip-glass combination is then mounted onto the base of a package (also with a hole at center). Then, pads on the chip are electrically connected to the leads of the package by wire-bonding. A cap with an input port is then hermetically sealed to the base of the package so that the pressure to be measured can be applied through the input port of the cap.

Fig. 1.1.6 An encapsulated silicon pressure transducer (a gauge pressure transducer)

To meet different application needs, pressure transducers can be packaged to form three types of devices. They are gauge pressure transducers (GP), absolute pressure transducers (AP) and differential pressure transducers (DP). The pressure transducer shown in Fig. 1.1.6 is a gauge pressure transducer. This kind of pressure transducer measures a pressure measurand with reference to the environmental pressure around the