Optical methods for characterization of MEMS device motion

Phyllis R. Nelson, Patrick B. Chu, Kristofer S. J. Pister

Department of Electrical Engineering
University of California at Los Angeles
405 Hilgard Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1594

ABSTRACT
Micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) devices are small compared to normal mechanical devices, but
they are still large compared to the wavelength of visible light. Thus, simple low-cost optical measurement
techniques can be adapted for precise characterization of the motions of these small objects. The results
of such measurements are important for verication of simulations, especially for devices in which nonlin-
ear eects such as squeeze lm damping play a signicant role. The advantages and challenges of optical
metrology for MEMS are examined using an electrostatically-actuated microgripper structure as an example
device. Interferometric measurements of static rotation and of small-signal sinusoidal and impulse responses
are presented.
Keyword: electrostatic actuator, Michaelson interferometer, micro-optics, surface micromachining
1 INTRODUCTION
The design of MEMS sensor and actuator structures requires accurate prediction of displacements and
rotations. Although simulation capabilities are advancing rapidly, many devices exhibit nonlinear or higher-
order eects such as electrostatic attraction, squeeze lm damping, and coupling of multiple structural
deformation modes, all of which must be accurately accounted for in the simulations. Models for these
eects have been developed, but they are frequently not sucient for a priori prediction of actual perfor-
mance, especially near structural resonant frequencies. Thus, calibration and design verication require
high-precision absolute measurements of displacement or rotation of structural components having lateral
dimensions of a few tens or hundreds of microns and thicknesses of a few microns.
Optical metrology is an attractive characterization technique allowing determination of both static and
dynamic displacements, especially since optical methods do not require additional integrated sensors, whose
calibration may vary with processing conditions. Since MEMS devices are typically large compared with the
wavelength of visible light and since visible light is re ected by both silicon and metalizations, most MEMS
structures require little or no special modication to enable optical testing.
The novel polysilicon parallel-plate electrostatic actuator shown in Fig. 1 and 2 is used as an example
structure for demonstrating applications of optical measurement techniques to the accurate determination
of device motion. This structure, the design and modeling of which have been presented elsewhere [1], is
particularly interesting in that it combines large actuation forces from large capacitor plates having areas in
the range of 0.1 mm2 with unusually weak springs realized by long, thin support beams. The structure is
designed to maintain the actuation plates parallel, as shown in Fig. 2.
2 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS
One of the signicant challenges of measuring MEMS devices is their small size. For example, the plates
of our actuator have an area of approximately 0.1 mm2, while the beam from a typical helium-neon (HeNe)
laser has an area approximately ten times that size. Thus the beam must be focused onto the device under
test in order to achieve a high-contrast re ected signal. This is accomplished by eliminating or minimizing
re ections from other devices, the wafer surface, bond wires, and mounting xtures. In our laboratory, the
chip under test is installed in a ve-axis optical mount which allows x-y-z translation and rotation about
two mutually-orthogonal axes. The incident laser beam remains xed and the test device is positioned for
retro-re ection with no applied excitation voltage. A lens having a focal length of a few cm is used to focus
the input beam onto the test structure. This focal length was chosen as a compromise between small spot
size and ease of use. Shorter focal length lenses can interfere with packaging or mounting xtures, and can
also make focusing more critical.
Another challenge for optical measurements of MEMS structures is the presence of signicant surface
patterning. The production of large-area undercut planes of material in typical MEMS processes such as
MCNC [2] requires a regular pattern of holes to allow the etchant to reach the material to be removed. The
masks used to fabricate our test structures utilize several arrays of square holes 3 m on a side and 20 m
between centers to ensure complete release of the actuator structure. In addition, because of their large
lateral area, our actuator plates require some small bumps near their centers to hold them away from the
underlying wafer material and allow complete release of the nal structures. Both the etch holes and the
bumps are sources of scattered light which reduce the contrast of optical measurements. The presence of
these surface irregularities can cause changes in the local eective re ectivity of the structure with changes
in position due to diraction and interference in the complex re ected wave. Such eects can be minimized
by choosing a focusing lens that yields a focus spot diameter which is large compared to the size of the
surface features, so that the majority of the re ected light is from the planar surface.
The optical properties of the typical thin, planar silicon and polysilicon MEMS structures (a few m in
thickness) also presents diculties for optical characterization techniques. Typical eective re ectivity of
a polysilicon plate, such as those in our actuator, is approximately 24 % at normal incidence [3] , and the
plates are thin enough to be signicantly transmissive at the wavelength (0.6328 m) used in our experiments.
While transmission could be decreased by using a shorter wavelength laser, the total eective transmission
would still be signicant due to the presence of etch holes. The relatively low eective re ectivity of typical
test devices, combined with the unavoidable presence of scattered transmitted light, limits the contrast of
re ected signals and can in uence the accuracy of optical measurements. In some cases, metalization of the
test device to increase its re ectivity and decrease its transmission can signicantly improve the accuracy of
optical measurements.
3 STATIC ROTATION MEASUREMENTS
The rotational motion of our structure under static actuation can be accurately determined optically.
The test device is rst positioned so that the re ected beam is returned directly to the source when there
is no applied voltage. Then, when a DC actuation voltage is applied, measuring the rotations required
to reestablish the retrore ection condition directly yields the desired information with an accuracy that is
typically limited by the distortion of the re ected beam. We have used this technique to establish that the
maximum static rotation of our structure is less than 0.5 degree, with the direction of rotation changing
sign over the range of voltages (0-45 V) used in the test. The resolution of these angular measurements was
approximately 0.02 degree.
4 DYNAMIC MEASUREMENTS
The dynamic response of our test device has been characterized optically using a Michaelson interferometer
as shown in Fig. 3. One of the mirrors is replaced by the actuator plate and lens, while the other mirror is
mounted on a PZT translator to allow adjustment of optical path dierence between the two light paths.
Since the phase front of the focused beam is at near the focus, the interferometer produces a typical ring-like
interference pattern in the output path which has sucient contrast to be clearly visible. A small aperture
is placed at the center of this interference pattern. A silicon photodiode behind the aperture allows the
transmitted intensity to be displayed on a digital oscilloscope and the data transfered to a computer for
analysis.
 The de ection  of the actuator plate is determined from the time dependent portion of the detected
intensity signal, which has the form
A sin(4(
d + )=) (1)
The amplitude A is equal to half the dierence between the maximum and minimum intensity observable
from the static device by adjusting the optical path dierence d using the translating mirror. When a
small sinusoidal voltage plus a DC oset voltage are applied to the test device, the time-dependent intensity
observed at the detector is a sinusoid having the same frequency as the excitation. For AC signals with
amplitudes small compared to A, adjusting the translating mirror to maximize the amplitude of the AC
response assures a linear relationship between  and the observed signal amplitude. That is, the observed
detector AC voltage is
V (t) = (4A=)(t) (2)
Fig. 4 shows the experimental small signal response of our example device. A least-square t to a linear
model gives a resonant frequency of 736 Hz and a Q of 3.7. For comparison, the result of a computer
simulation is also shown in Fig. 4. The measured and predicted amplitudes show excellent agreement at low
frequency, and the resonant frequency of the simulation, 707 Hz, diers from the measured value by less than
4 %. However, the measured Q is more than an order of magnitude lower than predicted by the model.
A second interferometric method of measuring the dynamic response of the test structure is to replace
the sinusoidal AC excitation by an impulse and again record the AC intensity of the interference pattern.
The results of such an experiment are shown in Fig. 5, together with a least-squares t to the equation
V (t) = aebt sin(2ft) (3)
where b = -529 and f = 727 Hz. This corresponds to a natural frequency of 732 Hz and a Q of 4.3.
5 CONCLUSION
Accurate measurements of static angular de ection, small-signal sinusoidal response and small-signal
impulse response of a parallel-plate electrostatic actuator structure are presented as examples of the potential
of optical methods for characterization of MEMS structures. Interferometric measurements of small-signal
response allow estimation of the natural frequency and Q of the structure at a given DC actuation voltage.
Fits of the experimental data to linearized models suggest that the actuator response is signicantly nonlinear
even for small AC actuation voltages.
References
[1] P. B. Chu, P. R. Nelson, M. L. Tachiki and K. S. J. Pister, \Dynamics of polysilicon parallel-plate electro-
static actuators," The 8th International Conference on Solid State Sensors and Actuators (Transducers
'95), Vol.2, pp.356-359, 1995.
[2] MCNC Center for Microelectronic Systems Technologies, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2889.
[3] D. S. Gunawan, L. -Y. Lin and K. S. J. Pister, \Micromachined corner cube re ectors as a communication
link", Sensors and Actuators A (Physical), March-April 1995, Vol. A47, (no.1-3):580-3.
 Figure 1: The polysilicon parallel-plate electrostatic actuator.

L/2 L/2

Ideal Rigid
Side View Support
Beams

Suspended Flexible
Support Support
Plate Actuation Plate
Beams

Ideal
Top View

Figure 2: Ideal top and side views of the suspended plates and support beams when a voltage is applied
between the plates. The beam support is designed to maintain parallel plates during de ection.

Mirror
Laser

Mirror

Beam
Splitter Detector
Diverging
Lens Iris
Converging
Lens
Micro−actuator

Figure 3: The Michaelson interferometer used to measure the de ection of the microactuator. One of the
actuator plates is used as a mirror. The second interferometer mirror can be translated to adjust the phase
dierence between the two interfering beams.
 0
Simulated Mag in micron 10

−1
10

−2
10 2 3
10 10
Frequency (in Hz)
Measured Magnitude in micron

0
10

"x" = Measured data

−1 "−" = Least Square Fit
10

−2
10 2 3
10 10
Frequency (in Hz)

Figure 4: Simulated and experimental bode plots. The actuator in Fig. 1 is driven by 12Vdc plus a 135mV
sinusoid at dierent frequencies.

0.04

0.03

0.02
Displacement (in micron)

0.01

−0.01

−0.02

−0.03

−0.04
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Time (in msec)

Figure 5: Experimental impulse response and the least square t to Eq. 3.