Power Mems Development

Abstract

In Task 1.1, we were able to fabricate two silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers and two double-side-polished (DSP) wafers. The fabricated wafers were bonded and then released and tested for circuit breaker configuration. The first bonded wafer pair failed during the deep reactive-ion etching (DRIE) release step due to insufficient masking material. This bonded wafer pair was processed in SRI's MicroSystems Engineering Laboratory in Menlo Park, CA (MSELWest), where the selectivity of etching silicon to silicon oxide is lower due to variations in the process resulting from equipment set differences. The second bonded wafer pair, which was processed in MSEL-East (Largo, FL), released as expected. During testing we observed that a few cantilevers acted as circuit breakers; however, we were not able to obtain resettable circuit breakers. We will present a detailed analysis of the test results in next month's report. In Task 1.2, we simultaneously processed three versions of wafers. Wafers processed in Task 1.1 also contained voltage multiplier switches. During testing of the resettable circuit breaker switches, we found that the cantilevers actuate and perform as breakers as we indicated by the circuit resistance changing from 10 Momega to 200 omega following actuation at 19 V. More testing on those devices is currently in progress. In the second version, an additional mask was designed to etch the bulk silicon under the MEMS plate to keep the plate from moving toward the substrate. Wafers processed in this version failed during the structure silicon etch step. In MSEL-West, the 4-in. wafer is mounted on a 6-in. wafer for DRIE. During this step the resist that was in place to protect the structure got burned due to overheating in the etch process, and the springs connecting the plates to the anchor were etched away. Finally, we developed a new method of processing, involving fewer tools and faster turnaround, using two of the Version 1 masks.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 01, 2011
Accession Number
ADA538106

Entities

People

  • Drew Hanser
  • John Bumgarner

Organizations

  • SRI International

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Circuit Breakers
  • Dc-To-Dc Converters
  • Engineering
  • Etching
  • Fabrication
  • Films
  • Heat Sinks
  • Information Operations
  • Materials
  • Microelectromechanical Systems
  • Military Research
  • Oxides
  • Physical Sciences
  • Radio Frequency
  • Reactive Ion Etching
  • Switches
  • Thin Films

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Electrical Engineering
  • Integrated Circuit Design and Technology.
  • Nanofabrication and Microfabrication.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Microelectronics - Graphene
  • Microelectronics - Microelectromechanical Systems