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Procedia Materials Science 6 (2014) 1170 – 1177

3rd International Conference on Materials Processing and Characterisation (ICMPC 2014)

Micro Machining For Micro Electro Mechanical Systems

(MEMS)
Venkata Ramesh Mamillaa* , Kommuri.Sai Chakradhar b
a
Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering QIS College of Engineering &Technology, Ongole, Andhra Pradesh,
India
b
Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering QIS College of Engineering &Technology , Ongole, Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract

This paper studies on micro fabrication methods for MEMS. Silicon micromachining has been a key factor
for the vast progress of MEMS. Silicon micromachining refers to fashioning microscopic mechanical parts out of a
silicon substrate or on a silicon substrate. Silicon micromachining comprises two technologies: bulk micromachining,
in which structures are etched into silicon substrate and surface micromachining, in which the micromechanical layers
are formed from layers and films deposited on the surface. Bulk micromachining and surface micromachining are the
two major micromachining processes of silicon, and silicon wafer bonding is usually necessary for silicon
microfabrication. LIGA and 3D microfabrications have been used for high aspect ratio and 3D-microstructure
fabrication for MEMS.

© 2014
© 2014Elsevier
The Authors. Published
Ltd. This byaccess
is an open Elsevier Ltd.under the CC BY-NC-ND license
article
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Gokaraju Rangaraju Institute of Engineering and Technology
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
(GRIET).and peer review under responsibility of the Gokaraju Rangaraju Institute of Engineering and Technology (GRIET)
Selection

Keywords: Micro Machining; bulk micromachining; surface micromachining; LIGA; MEMS

1. Introduction

A Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) is the technology of very small mechanical devices with at
least some of their dimensions in the micrometer range driven by electricity. Typical MEMS consist of
components with a size of 1 to 100 μm – the whole MEMS device generally ranges in size from 20 μm to 1
mm. structure (Jaeger, R.C 1988). It usually consists of a central unit that processes data, the
microprocessor and several components that interact with the outside such as e.g. pressure sensors,
accelerometers or gyroscopes.

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-9885183268;

E-mail address: [email protected]

2211-8128 © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Selection and peer review under responsibility of the Gokaraju Rangaraju Institute of Engineering and Technology (GRIET)
doi:10.1016/j.mspro.2014.07.190
 Venkata Ramesh Mamilla and Kommuri.Sai Chakradhar / Procedia Materials Science 6 (2014) 1170 – 1177 1171

Nomenclature

HAR High aspect ratio

IC Integrated chip
MEMS Microelectromechanical system
μ Micro
RIE Reactive Ion Etching
SOI silicon-on-insulator
UV Ultraviolet

In the 1980s the MEMS fabrication was almost exclusively based on processes and materials borrowed
from IC fabrication labs. In the 1990s additional techniques including moulding, plating, wet and dry
etching and other technologies capable of manufacturing small devices were developed. To make new
applications possible lots of quite exotic materials were integrated into the MEMS devices. For applications
in the fields of medicine and biochemistry these materials include for example gas-permeable membranes,
enzymes, biological cells, antibodies etc.
Micro fabrication is increasingly central to modern science and technology. Many opportunities in
technology derive from the ability to fabricate new tvpes of microstructures or to reconstitute existing
structures in down-sized versions. The most obvious examples are in microelectronics. Microstructures
should also provide the opportunity to study basic scientific phenomena that occur at small dimensions: one
example is quantum confinement observed in nanostructures. Although micro fabrication has its basis in
microelectronics and most research in micro fabrication has been focused on microelectronic devices,
applications in other areas are rapidly emerging. These include systems for microanalysis, micro-volume
reactors, combinatorial synthesis, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and optical components

2. Materials used in MEMS fabrication

2.1 Silicon

Silicon is the material used to create most integrated circuits used in consumer electronics in the modern
world. It is also an attractive material for the production of MEMS, as it displays many advantageous
mechanical and chemical properties: Single crystalline silicon is an almost perfect Hookean material. This
means that when silicon is bent there is virtually no hysteresis and hence almost no energy loss. This
property makes it to the ideal material, where many small motions and high reliability are demanded, as
silicon displays very little fatigue and can achieve service lifetimes in the range of billions to trillions of
cycles (Petersen, K.E. 1982).

2.2 Polymers

Even though the electronics industry provides an economy of scale for the silicon industry, crystalline
silicon is still a complex and relatively expensive material to be produced. Polymers on the other hand can
be produced in huge volumes, with a great variety of material characteristics. MEMS devices can be made
from polymers by processes such as injection moulding, embossing orstereolithography and are especially
well suited to micro fluidic applications such as disposable blood testing cartridges.

2.3 Metals

Metals can also be used to create MEMS elements. While metals do not have some of the advantages
displayed by silicon in terms of mechanical properties, when used within their limitations, metals can
exhibit very high degrees of reliability. Metals can be deposited by electroplating, evaporation, and
sputtering processes. Commonly used metals include gold, nickel, aluminium, copper, chromium,
titanium, tungsten, platinum, and silver.
1172 Venkata Ramesh Mamilla and Kommuri.Sai Chakradhar / Procedia Materials Science 6 (2014) 1170 – 1177

2.4 Ceramics

The nitrides of silicon, aluminium and titanium as well as silicon carbide and other ceramics are
increasingly applied in MEMS fabrication due to advantageous combinations of material properties.

2.4 Other materials

Besides silicon also some metals and polymers can be used to form MEMS elements or functional
layers. The common fabrication processes for metals such as gold, nickel, copper, titanium, silver and
several more are electroplating, evaporation and sputter deposition. Polymeric MEMS can be produced by
using injection moulding, embossing or stereo lithography. These MEMS devices are especially well suited
to micro fluidic applications such as disposable blood testing cartridge.

3. Micromachining
• Photolithography
• Etching
• LIGA
• Mechanical Micromachining

4. Bulk micromachining
The term bulk micromachining comes from the fact that this type of micromachining is used to realize
micromechanical structures within the bulk of a single-crystal silicon wafer by selectively removing
(‘etching’) wafer material. The microstructures fabricated using bulk micromachining may cover the
thickness range from submicron to full wafer thickness (200–500 μm), and the lateral size range from
submicron to the lateral dimensions of a full wafer. Bulk micromachining technique allows to selectively
remove significant amounts of silicon from a substrate to form membranes on one side of a wafer, a variety
of trenches, holes, or other (Bryzek, J et al. 1994). Bulk micromachining technique can be divided into wet
etching and dry etching of silicon according to the phase of etchants. Liquid etchants, almost exclusively
replying on aqueous chemicals, are referred to as wet etching. Vapor and plasma etchants are referred to as
dry etching.
For etching such thick silicon substrate, anisotropic wet etchants such as solutions of potassium
hydroxide (KOH), ethylene diamine and pyrocatechol (EDP), tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH),
and hydrazine-water are used. These etchants have different etch rates in different crystal orientation of the
silicon . Wet etching in mostcase is done from the back side of the wafer while the plasma etching is being
applied to front side (Shaw, K W. et al 1994)
Etch process can be made selective by the use of dopants (heavily doped regions etch slowly) or may
even be halted electrochemically (e.g., etching stops upon encountering a region of different polarity in a
biased p–n junction). A region at which wet etching tends to slow down or diminish is called an etch-stop.
Wet etching occurs by dipping substrate into an etching bath or spraying it with etchants that may be
acid or alkaline. Wet etching can either be isotropic etching or anisotropic etching depending on the
structure of the materials or the etchants used (Aeidel, H,(1987). If the material is amorphous or
polycrystalline, wet etching is always isotropic etching (Figure 1.a). During isotropic etching (etchants used
are acid solution), resist is always undercut, implying that the deep etching is not practical for MEMS.

Figure .1: (a) Isotropical etching (b) Anisotropic etching

 Venkata Ramesh Mamilla and Kommuri.Sai Chakradhar / Procedia Materials Science 6 (2014) 1170 – 1177 1173

Figure 2: Etched grooves using (a) anisotropic etchants, (b) isotropic etchants, (c) Reactive Ion Etching (RIE)

5. Surface Micromachining

x selectivity of structural, sacrificial and substrate materials

x stress of structural material
x stiction

Most commonly used materials for surface micromachining:

x substrate: silicon
x sacrificial material: SiO2 or phosphosilicate glass (PSG)
x structural material: polysilicon

Surface micromachining does not shape the bulk silicon but instead builds structures on the surface of
the silicon by depositing thin films of ‘sacrificial layers’ and ‘structural layers’ and by removing eventually
the sacrificial layers to release the mechanical structures (Figure 3). The dimensions of these surface
micromachined structures can be several orders of magnitude smaller than bulk-micromachined structures.
The prime advantage of surface-micromachined structures is their easy integration with IC components,
because the wafer is also the working area for IC elements (Rai-choudhury, P, 1997). It should be noted that
as miniaturization is immensely increased by surface micromachining, the small mass structure involved
may be insufficient for a number of mechanical sensing and actuation applications.
Surface micromachining requires a compatible set of structural materials, sacrificial materials, and
chemical etchants. The structural materials must possess the physical and chemical properties that are
suitable for the desired application. In addition, they must have satisfactory mechanical properties, for e.g.,
high yield and fracture stresses, minimal creep and fatigue, and good wear resistance. The sacrificial
materials must have good mechanical properties to avoid device failure during fabrication. These properties
include good adhesion and low-residual stresses to eliminate device failure by delamination and/or
cracking. The etchants to remove the sacrificial materials must have excellent etch selectivity and they must
be able to etch off the sacrificial materials without affecting the structural ones. In addition, the etchants
must have proper viscosity and surface tension characteristics.
1174 Venkata Ramesh Mamilla and Kommuri.Sai Chakradhar / Procedia Materials Science 6 (2014) 1170 – 1177

Figure 3: Basic surface micromachining process. (a) Spacer layer deposition. (b) Pattering of the spacer layer. (c) Deposition of the
microstructure layer. (d) Patterning of desired structure. (e) Stripping of the spacer layer resolves final structure

Table 1. Alternative materials

Substrates Sacrificial Structural

Glass Polymer Thin film silicon (a-Si:H, c-Si)

Plastic Metals silicon nitrides
metals silicon nitride Silicon carbide
Metals
polymers
bilayer composites

x Polysilicon deposited by LPCVD (T~600 ºC) usually has large stress

x High T anneal (600-1000 ºC) for more than 2 hours relaxes the strain

Low temperature, thin film materials has much less intrinsic stress

6.0 Wafer Bonding For MEMS

Silicon micromachining has limitations in forming complex 3D microstructures in a monolithic format;

multichip structures are then proposed for advanced MEMS, in which wafer-to-wafer bonding is critical in
the formation . The wafer bonding for MEMS can be categorized into three major types: anodic bonding,
intermediate-layer bonding-assisted bonding, and direct bonding.
 Venkata Ramesh Mamilla and Kommuri.Sai Chakradhar / Procedia Materials Science 6 (2014) 1170 – 1177 1175

6.1 Wafer bonding- Anodic

x bring sodium contating glass (Pyrex) and silicon together

x heat to high temperature (200-500 ºC) in vacuum, air or inert ambient
x apply high electric field between the 2 materials (V~1000V) causing mobile + ions to migrate to
the cathode leaving behind fixed negative charge at glass/silicon interface
x bonding is complete when current vanishes
x glass and silicon held together by electrostatic attraction between – charge in glass and + charges
in silicon
The advantage of anodic bonding for MEMS is that the low temperature used can ensure the metalization
layer (aluminum) to withstand this temperature without degradation.

6.2 Intermediate Layer-Assisted Bonding

This type of bonding for MEMS requires an intermediate layer, which can be metal, polymer, solders,
glasses, etc., to fulfill the bonding between wafers.

Figure.4: Anodic bonding

7. LIGA Process

7.1 Deep X-ray lithography and mask technology

Deep X-ray (0.01 – 1nm wavelength) lithography can produce high aspect ratios (1 mm high and a
lateral resolution of 0.2 μm). X-rays break chemical bonds in the resist; exposed resist is dissolved using
wet-etching process (Xia, Y et al. 1998).
7.2Electroforming
The spaces generated by the removal of the irradiated plastic material are filled with metal (e.g. Ni)
using electro-deposition process. Precision grinding with diamond slurry-based metal plate used to remove
substrate layer/metal layer
7.3 Plastic Molding
Metal mold from LIGA used for injection molding of MEMS structures

LIGA (Lithography,Electroforming,Molding) is a technique that combines X-ray (or synchrotron)

lithography electroplating, and molding for fabricating microstructures with high aspect ratios and
relatively large feature sizes (- 10 pm). Although the standard equipment for UV exposure can be adapted
for this application, special optics and alignment systems are needed for structures thicker than 200 μm.
1176 Venkata Ramesh Mamilla and Kommuri.Sai Chakradhar / Procedia Materials Science 6 (2014) 1170 – 1177

8. High aspect ratio (HAR) silicon micromachining

Both bulk and surface silicon micromachining are used in the industrial production of sensors, ink-jet
nozzles, and other devices. But in many cases the distinction between these two has diminished. A new
etching technology, deep reactive-ion etching, has made it possible to combine good performance typical
of bulk micromachining with comb structures and in-plane operation typical of surface micromachining
(Cohen, A, et al., 1999 ).While it is common in surface micromachining to have structural layer thickness
in the range of 2 μm, in HAR silicon micromachining the thickness can be from 10 to 100 μm (Guckel, H,
1998). The materials commonly used in HAR silicon micromachining are thick polycrystalline silicon,
known as epi-poly, and bonded silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers although processes for bulk silicon wafer
also have been created (SCREAM). Bonding a second wafer by glass frit bonding, anodic bonding or alloy
bonding is used to protect the MEMS structures. Integrated circuits are typically not combined with HAR
silicon micromachining.

9. Applications

x Inkjet printers, which use piezoelectrics or thermal bubble ejection to deposit ink on paper.
x Accelerometers in modern cars for a large number of purposes including airbag deployment in
collisions.
x Accelerometers in consumer electronics devices such as game controllers (Nintendo Wii), personal
media players / cell phones (Apple iPhone, various Nokia mobile phone models, various HTC PDA
models) and a number of Digital Cameras (various Canon Digital IXUS models). Also used in PCs to
park the hard disk head when free-fall is detected, to prevent damage and data loss ( Ahn, C H. et al.
1998)
x MEMS gyroscopes used in modern cars and other applications to detect yaw; e.g. to deploy a roll over
bar or trigger dynamic stability control.
x Silicon pressure sensors e.g. car tire pressure sensors, and disposable blood pressure sensors.
x Optical switching technology which is used for switching technology and alignment for data
communications.
x Bio-MEMS applications in medical and health related technologies from Lab-On-Chip to
MicroTotalAnalysis (biosensor, chemosensor).

10. Conclusions
Microfabrication is growing in importance in a wide range of areas outside of microelectronics,
including MEMS, microreactors, microanalytical systems and optical devices. Photolithography will
continue as the dominant technology in the area of microelectronics for the foreseeable future.
Soft lithography offers a new strategy for microfabrication. Based on self-assembled Monolayers and
molding of organic polymers, this set of techniques represents a nonphotolithographic methodology for
forming micropatterns, microstructures and microsystems of different materials on a range of substrates.
Both bulk and surface silicon micromachining are used in the industrial production of sensors, ink-jet
nozzles, and other devices. But in many cases the distinction between these two has diminished. A new
etching technology, deep reactive-ion etching, has made it possible to combine good performance typical of bulk
micromachining with comb structures and in-plane operation typical of surface micromachining

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