PMMA High Sensitive Capacitive Micro

Accelerometer Fabricated Based on Hot Embossing

Satoshi Amaya Dzung Viet Dao, Susumu Sugiyama

TOWA Corporation Ritsumeikan University
Kyoto, Japan Kusatsu, Japan
gr012080@ed.ritsumei.ac.jp dzung@se.ritsumei.ac.jp, sugiyama@fc.ritsumei.ac.jp

Abstract—This paper presents for the first time the between the two fingers is 5μm and 15μm (figure 1), and the
fabrication and testing of a PMMA capacitive micro dimensions of the folded-beams are 1040×10×60μm3
accelerometer based on hot embossing and ultra-precision (L×W×T). The size of the mass is 1.5mm×1.5mm. The gap
machining. The detection principle of the PMMA micro between device layer and the substrate is about 50μm.
accelerometer is based on closing-gap capacitive combs. 500µm
Since the sensor is made of PMMA polymer, it would be
very flexible, high sensitive and low cost. The PMMA 40µm
1.5mm
micro accelerometer was tested and very high sensitivity
of 0.4pF /G or equivalent to 0.16V/G/V was obtained. 1.5mm

I. INTRODUCTION
Silicon-based MEMS have been developing over the past
35 years with numerous successful commercializations of 60µm
silicon micro sensors, micro actuators in industrial and
consumer applications. However, Si is not the best choice for
all applications, especially for low cost devices. Recently, Schematic view of PMMA accelerometer
polymer MEMS have been studied extensively [1, 2] because
of several advantages against traditional silicon MEMS, such
as lower material, fabrication and assembly costs; most 5µm
polymers are flexible or softer than Si and, in many varieties, 5µm
they are transparent, biocompatible, and biodegradable, etc.
Since the Young's modulus and mass density of PMMA are 15µm
about 1/50 and 1/2 compared to those of Si, respectively, the
PMMA accelerometer should have a sensitivity of 25 times
higher than that of the silicon counterpart. In this work, at first
we will demonstrate the novel fabrication process for PMMA 100µm
MEMS structures, i.e. movable micro structures, based on hot
embossing and high precision machining (i.e. elliptical
vibration cutting method). Then, the development of a PMMA
capacitive micro accelerometer based on this process is Details of comb parts
presented.
Figure 1. Configuration of PMMA micro accelerometer.
II. DESIGN OF THE CAPACITIVE MICRO ACCELEROMETER
Configuration of the PMMA capacitive micro III. FABRICATION PROCESS OF THE MICRO
accelerometer is shown in figure 1.The micro accelerometer ACCELEROMETER
consists of a mass suspended by four beams. The mass can The fabrication process of the PMMA micro accelerometer
move laterally upon an application of acceleration, therefore, is shown schematically in figure 2.
the gaps of comb electrodes are changed, leading to the
change of capacitance. Capacitance change is then converted Firstly, two-stepped silicon mold was fabricated from
to output voltage through C-V converter circuit. Dimensions silicon wafer by ICP-RIE as shown in figure 3. Then the micro
of an electrode finger are 110×5×60μm3 (L×W×T), gap accelerometer structure was formed by hot embossing of

978-1-4244-5335-1/09/$26.00 ©2009 IEEE 1301 IEEE SENSORS 2009 Conference

PMMA. Next, the hot embossed PMMA structure was bonded
to another PMMA plate by surface activation method to create
very firm bonding without using intermediate material. A thin
PMMA layer is always remained after hot embossing process.
Removing this layer becomes one of the most challenging
steps in fabrication of the polymer comb-drive actuator. In this
work, this layer was about 500μm thick and it was removed
accurately and safely by using the ultra-precision cutting
method. Floating PMMA micro structures, such as fingers,
beams, masses were released successfully. Finally, a thin gold
layer was sputtered on the surface of the fingers to create the
electrodes for electrostatic actuator.
In order to assure the micro device operating, it is
necessary to make the movable parts release from the
substrate. Usually, to produce floating structure, the moving
parts and fixed parts are produced separately, and then bonded
together. However, this method requires alignment step before
bonding; therefore, it strongly affects the accuracy and
fabrication time of the device. In this work, we propose a
method, in which the fixed part and movable part are
fabricated from a single molding process, therefore, the
accuracy is high and process time is short. To apply this
method, the mold structure must have two steps as shown in
figure 2 (a).
the surface of a Si wafer by thermal oxidation process, and
then movable parts and fixed parts are patterned by
photolithography and SiO2 etching in BHF acid (figure 3a).
Next, the fixed parts are patterned by photolithography to
create a photoresist mask for ICP-RIE process (figure 3b).
Then, ICP-RIE process is performed to a depth of 30 µm
(figure 3c). Next, photoresist is removed and the second ICP-
RIE process is performed (with the etching mask is SiO2) to a
depth of 60 µm, and the patterns of the movable part are
created (figure 3 (d)). ICP-RIE conditions were investigated
carefully to guarantee the positive taper of the side wall of the
mold [4]. Finally lubricating agent for easier de-molding is
applied to the Si mold before performing embossing process.
Figures 4 and 5 shows the Si mold structure.
(a) SiO2 deposition and patterning
(b) Photo lithography

(c) First ICP-RIE

(a) Fabricated two steps of Si mold

(d) After resist removal, 2nd ICP-RIE

(b) Hot embossing of comb actuators

(e) Removing SiO2 and coated mold release agent

Si SiO2 Resist
(c) Bonding by surface activation method

Figure 3. Fabrication process of two-stepped Si mold.

(d) Removing film using ultra-precision cutting

(e) Coating Au for the electrode

Si PMMA Au

Figure 2. Fabrication process of the PMMA micro

accelerometer.

A. Fabrication of two-step Si mold Figure 4. SEM image of the two-stepped Si mold of the
The fabrication process of the two-step Si mold is shown accelerometer.
schematically in figure 3 [3]. Firstly, SiO2 layer is formed on
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Figure 5. SEM close-up image of the comb fingers illustrated
in Fig. 4.
B. Hot Embossing and Bonding
The fabricated silicon molds are used for hot embossing
process. Micro accelerometer structures were hot embossed on
PMMA material. The entire hot embossing procedure and
condition parameters are as below:
(1) Set up a silicon mold and PMMA sheet of 1mm into
a chamber and evacuate to a pressure under 40Torr.
This is important condition to obtain sharp edges of
PMMA structure.
(2) Heat the silicon mold and PMMA at the same time to
a temperature of 180oC and maintain this temperature
for 15 minutes.
(3) Insert the mold into PMMA and increase the molding
force to 1500 N with the molding rate of 0.1mm/min.
Maintain the molding force of 1500 N for 10 minutes.
(4) Cool the mold and PMMA to 80 C.o
(5) De-molding rate is 0.01 mm/min at 80oC.
(6) Vent chamber, remove silicon mold and hot
embossed PMMA sheet.
Figures 6 and 7 show the PMMA micro accelerometer
structure fabricated by hot embossing using two-stepped Si
mold. The silicon mold was not broken after de-molding, and
can be re-used for the next hot embossing experiments. The
whole processing cycle is about 45 minutes.
Step heights or the thickness of hot embossed PMMA
structure are measured by alpha-step profiler. Movable parts,
such as comb finger and proof mass, have the thickness of
about 71µm. The thickness of the fixed parts is 122µm. The
PMMA layer, which is unintentionally remained after the hot
embossing, has a thickness of 525μm. This layer later will be
removed by ultra-precision cutting to release the movable
parts.
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Figure 6. SEM image of the PMMA micro accelerometer
structure after hot embossing process.
Figure 7. SEM image of the comb fingers of the PMMA
micro accelerometer.
After hot embossing, the top surface of PMMA structure
was bonded to a PMMA plate by surface activation method
(figure 2 c) [5]. Here, surfaces of hot embossed sample and a
PMMA plate surfaces were activated by using oxygen plasma.
After that, both activated samples were bonded together at
70oC and pressure of 4.4MPa for 10 minutes .
C. Releasing and metallization
After the hot embossed PMMA structures was bonded to a
PMMA substrate, the next step is to release the movable parts
of the device by removing the remained PMMA thin film
(figure 2 d). To protect the fragile structures during removing,
a reinforcement agent was filled into the structure. Next, the
remained PMMA thin film is removed by using ultra-precision
cutting method [6]. The cutting amount of one cutting cycle
was adjusted to 10-50μm/cycle. Finally, the reinforcement
agent is automatically removed in vacuum at room
temperature. Floating PMMA micro structures, such as comb
fingers and beams, were successfully released (figures 8, 9).
After the structures were fully released, a thin Au layer was
deposited by sputtering to create electrode for electrostatic
actuator. Accordingly, the PMMA capacitive micro
accelerometer with 100 comb fingers has been fabricated
successfully.
 V. CONCLUSIONS
A PMMA micro accelerometer has been successfully
fabricated on PMMA by hot embossing and ultra-precision
cutting for the first time. The preliminary operational test
results showed the device worked properly, although the
experiment and calculation values were still different. Several
advantages of this technique in our experiments can be
summarized as follows: (i) whole process is simple and low
cost; (ii) reproduction is easy; (iii) the PMMA structure has
higher flexibility compared with the counterpart made of
silicon; (iv) the displacement is also much larger compared
with silicon-based accelerometer because PMMA has a lower
Young’s modulus, therefore, a higher sensitivity is expected.
Because this work is still at early stage of our research,
there are several problems need to be solved to improve the
Figure 8. SEM image of PMMA micro accelerometer after performance of polymer-based micro accelerometers, such as
released. the reliability and repeatability.

Figure 9. Comb fingers of the PMMA micro accelerometer.
IV. OPERATIONAL TEST
The PMMA micro accelerometer was preliminarily
characterized by rotating it from 0o to 90o and the capacitance
change is measured. The output is shown in figure 10.
Capacitance changes of 10% (or 0.4pF) were obtained when
accelerations of 1G are applied.
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REFERENCES
[1] S. Amaya, D.V. Dao, and S. Sugiyama, Proceedings of
MEMS 2009, pp 713- 716
[2] Chao-Heng Chien And Zhi-Peng Chen, Tech. Digest
APCOT2006, B-16.
[3] M. Mita, Y. Mita, H. Toshiyoshi, H. Fujita,” Multiple-
height Microstructures Fabricated by ICP-RIE and
Embedded Masking Layers”, T.IEE Japan, Vol. 120-E,
No.11, 2000, pp.493-497
[4] P. H. Pham et al, “Fabrication and Characterization of
Smooth Si Mold for Hot Embossing Process”, J.
Micromech. Microeng. Vol. 127 (2007), No. 3 pp.187-
191
[5] T. Suzuki, F. Kitagawa, H. Shinohara, J. Mizuno, K.
Otsuka and S. Shoji, “Polymer Microchip for
Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry Fabricated by Hot
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[6] N. Suzuki, A. Nakamura, E. Shamoto, K. Harada, M.
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cutting ” Proceedings of MHS 2003, pp 221- 226

10

8
ΔC/C (%)

0
0 15 30 45 60 75 90
Inclined angle (°)
Figure 10. Measurement result of capacitance

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