ELEG-446X Fall 2005 MEMS: Project #3

1. A poly-silicon MEMS comb accelerometer device is shown in Figure 2. The device prototype comes from the ADXL50 accelerometer developed by Analog Devices Inc. It has been successfully used for automobile air-bag deployment. As a MEMS designer, you are asked to design such a comb accelerometer. Actual MEMS accelerometer contains 46 differential capacitance groups. For simplification, here we only design 32 finger groups. Among them, 24 finger groups act as the sensing capacitance, and other 8 finger groups act as built-in self-test capacitance. The built-in self-test feature allows the device to be self-tested during in-field usage using electrostatic force. Assume there is no acceleration input, a DC driving voltage Vd is applied to the left or right fixed driving fingers (both in top and bottom portions), the electrostatic force will attract the movable fingers toward left or right direction. By measuring this displacement and compared with good device response, one knows whether the device is good or faulty. This self-test feature is especially important for the safety-critical applications such as automobile airbag deployment. The device structure is shown in Figure 2. Assume after the device design optimization, we come to the design parameters as shown in Table 1. Table 1. Design parameters of comb accelerometer Design parameters Dimensions Device thickness t 2m Beam width Wb 2m Beam length Lb 210m Mass width Wm 80m Mass length Lm 372m Movable finger width Wf 4m Movable finger length Lf 160m Fixed finger width Wff 4m Fixed finger length Lff 194m Total number of driving fingers Nd 8 Total number of sensing fingers Ns 24 Capacitance gap d0 2m Gap d1 between two driving or sensing finger 4m groups Gap d2 between driving and sensing finger 6m groups (1). Assume the cross-section view of the accelerometer is shown in Figure 1. Starting from a bare silicon wafer, please sketch the fabrication flow diagram step by step to show the fabrication sequence of the accelerometer. (2). Based on the device symmetry, you can use the top-view 2D model for the simulation of the device, as shown in Figure 2. Try to decide the coordinates of the key points of the device. Based on these coordinates, please develop the 2dimensional ANSYS model for the comb accelerometer. Use ANSYS to simulate the device displacement sensitivity Sd along horizontal X direction for unit gravity acceleration (1g=9.8m/s2). 1/4

(3). Denote the capacitance between all the left-sensing fingers and movable fingers as left-sensing capacitance C1, and the capacitance between all the right-sensing fingers and movable fingers as right-sensing capacitance C2. Assume self-test driving voltage Vd=0V and there is no acceleration input, extract the static differential capacitance C1 and C2 (C1=C2=C0). After that, use hand calculation to find out the static capacitance based on the device design parameters. Compare this result with ANSYS extraction result, and find out the error for static capacitance extraction: C (hand _ calculation) C0 ( ANSYS ) Error = 0 100% C0 ( ANSYS ) (4). Assume you apply a self-test DC driving voltage of Vd=11V to all the 8 left driving fingers, use hand calculation to find out the electrostatic force on the movable fingers due to the self-test driving voltage. After that, use ANSYS to extract the left-sensing capacitance C1 and right-sensing capacitance C2. (5). Assume you apply modulation voltages Vmp and Vmn to the left and right sensing fingers separately: Vmp=10Vsqr(t) Vmn=-10Vsqr(t) The square wave voltages are shown in Figure 3. Using the capacitance extracted from step (4), calculate the voltage in the central movable fingers VM for Vd=11V and sketch its waveform. (6). Assume Vd is still 11V, now we will simulate the faulty device responses for a pointstiction defect in different locations. Assume the width and length of the point stiction is 2m(width)10m(length). Consider the following 3 different cases: i). The point stiction is on the top-left beam and 6m below the anchor. ii). The point stiction is on the top-left beam and 120m below the anchor, iii). The point stiction is on the top-left beam and 6m above the mass. For each of the above three cases, redo the simulation of step (4) and (5), find out the amplitude of output voltage VM of the faulty device. For each case, compare the voltage amplitude VM of faulty device with the fault-free device response you obtained in step (5), find out the percentage differences between the good and faulty device responses. V ( faulty _ device) VM ( good _ device) Percentage _ difference = M 100% VM ( good _ device) From the above result what conclusion can you draw?

Figure 1. Cross-section view of the comb accelerometer

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Figure 2. Poly-Si surface-micromachined comb accelerometer

Figure 3. The modulation voltages Vmp and Vmn 3/4

Figure 4. Some design parameters of the accelerometer Due day: 12/08/2005, Thursday in class.

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