Surface

micromachining and
Process flow part 1

Surface micromachining
The Si wafer functions
like the big green flat
plate.

Some Jenga pieces are

removed. The ones that
remain form the MEMS
structure.

= Surface
micromachining

Review of surface micromachining process

Surface micromachining
example
Creating a cantilever
Deposit poly-Si (structural
layerthe Jenga pieces that
remain)

Deposit SiO2 (sacrificial layer

the Jenga pieces that are
removed)
Remove sacrificial
layer (release)

Etch part
of the
layer.

Often the most criti

Silicon wafer
(Green Lego
plate)

Reminder of the surface micromachining process

side view

top view
silicon
oxide

metal

Process flow for surface -machined cantilever

1. .
2. .

Mask 1 (negative
resist)

Top view (4)

3. .

Top view (5)

4. .
5. .
6. .

Mask 1 (positive
resist)

Top view (6)

Process flow for surface -machined cantilever

Top view (7)

7. .
8. .

Mask 2 (negative
resist)

Mask 2 (positive
resist)

9. .
10..
11..
12..

Top view (9)

Top view (10)

Top view (11)

History and processes

Surface micro-machining (SMM)

Developed in the early 1980s at
the University of California at
Berkeley
Originally for polysilicon
mechanical structures
Other processes include
o Sandia National Labs
SUMMIT (Sandias Ultraplanar Multi-level MEMS
Technology) five levels
possible with four poly layers
o MEMS CAPs polyMUMPs
(Multi User MEMS Processes)
three layers of poly with a

Photo of a PolyMUMPs surface-micromachined

micro-mirror. The hinge design allows for out-ofplane motion of the mirror.

Requirements and advantages

Three to four different materials
required in addition to the substrate
o Sacrificial material (etch rate Rs)
o Structural mechanical material (etch
rate Rm)
o Sometimes electrical isolators
and/or insulation materials (etch
rate Ri)
Many SMM processes are compatible
with CMOS (complementary metal
oxide silicon) technology used in
microelectronics fabrication.
Can more easily integrate with their
control electronics
on the same chip
efficient and
Many SMM
inexpensive
processes have developed
their own sets of standards

Rs >> Rm > Ri

Best results are obtained

when structural materials
are deposited with good step
coverage.
Chemical vapor deposition
(CVD)
or
Physical vapor deposition
(PVD)
If PVD
Sputtering

Common material/etchant combinations for surface -machining

Structural
material

Sacrificial
Material

Si/Polysilicon

SiO2

Al

Photoresist

Polyimide
Si3N4

Phosphosilicate
glass (PSG)
Polysilicon

Etchant
Buffered oxide
etch (BOE)
(HF-NH4F ~
1:5)
Oxygen
plasma
HF
XeF2

Problems and issues

Stiction

moistu
re

Stiction
Stiction = static + friction
Stiction = stick + friction

An example of an unfavorable
scaling

surface tension
L
~ 2
restoritiv e force F L

1
~
L

An example of a portmanteau

Ways to reduce stiction

Coat (cubrir) surface with a thin
hydrophobic layer in order to repel liquid
Dry surfaces using supercritical CO2.
Removes fluids without allowing surface
tension to form.
C
Use stand-off bumps on the underside of
moving parts. Pillars prop up (soportar)
movable parts

Problems and issues

Dimple resulting from

a stand-off bump on the
underside of the cold
arm

Polysilicon hotarm actuator created using surface machining

Te toca a ti
Explain (with words, drawings, or both) how standoff bumps might
be created.

Lift-off
Usually included as an additive technique by most authors
1. Photoresist is spun on a wafer and
exposed to create pattern
Resist has either straight side walls, or
better, a reentrant shape.
2. Material deposited through the
photoresist mask using a line-of-sight
method, such as evaporation
1.Shadowing takes place,
2.Part of the photoresist sidewalls must
be free of deposited material
(+) or (-)
Photoresist stripped leaving behind only
C
resist?
material deposited through the opening.
material to
is the
lifted
of.thickness.
Thickness of the deposited material mustUnwanted
be thin compared
resist
Most often used to deposit metals, especially those that are hard to etch using
plasmas

Typical process steps for surface micromachining

modeling and simulation

design a layout
design a mask set
thin film formation (by
growth or deposition)

1
2
3
4
mask
set

lithography

C
etching

die separation

C
packaging

release

This is where
process flow
becomes
complicated.

Die separation and packaging

Must separate the individual devices
Often saw or scribe the wafer

Provide MEMS device with electrical

connections
Protect MEMS from the environment
Sometimes must also provide limited
access to environment (e.g.,
pressure sensor, inkjet print heads)
die separation

Packaging a difficult engineering

C
problem
packaging

Largest cost of producing many

(most) devices

packagi
ng

More on packaging

Wafer-level
packaging

Die-level packaging

packagi
ng

More on packaging
Schematic of a packaged MEMS pressure
detector showing some of the requirements
unique to MEMS

Process integration (Process flow)

We have learned much about the
many materials and techniques for
used processing materials to create
devices, including
Nature of crystalline
silicon
Adding material
o Doping
o Oxidation
o Deposition
PVD
CVD
Photolithography
Bulk Micromachining
Surface
Micromachining

How do we put these things together

to create a device?

Specifically:
How do we choose which steps we
need?
How do we choose the order of the
steps?
How do we communicate this order
of steps in the field?

Process
integration
(Process flow)

List of process steps in the

correct order with the
accompanying lithography

P
ac roc
. es
s

fo

es
t

Process integration (Process flow)

Hemos pasado mucho tiempo

http://juliaec.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/blooms_taxono
ac.
my.jpg

http://ictintegration.wikispaces.com/Bloom

Bulk -machined pressure sensor

Thin Si diaphragm changes
shape when pressure
changes on one side relative
to the other.

Piezoresistors (implemented
using p+ diffusion) sense the
deformation.

Aluminum wires send

resistive electrical signal off
the chip.

n+ diffusion is used as an
etch stop for the backside
etch.

Oxide + Nitride provides

Process flow, pass 1

The first pass for determining the process flow is to decide which steps we
need.
What are the basic steps necessary to
build the diaphragm?

Etch backside
(Need to protect front of wafer during
backside etch)
Add SiO2 and nitride layers
Etch area above diaphragm to give
diaphragm ability to move easily
Create an etch stop layer
o Reverse bias p-n junction will
stop etch
o Start with p-type wafer
o Dope n-type layer or grow n-type
epilayer (layer produces with

Process flow, pass 1

The first pass for determining the process flow is to decide which steps we
need.
What are the basic steps necessary to
build the sensor?

Add diffusion to get piezoresistor

Add wires so that piezoresistor can be
connected to external world
Note that wires must be metal (Could
use diffusion if the distance is short)

Process flow, pass 1

The first pass for determining the process flow is to decide which steps we
need.
What processing steps are required to
produce entire device?

Deposit/pattern oxide and nitride

Deposit/pattern Al for pads
Backside etch
n-type diffusion for etch stop
p-type diffusion for resistors/wires

Each of these steps results in more steps in

the detailed process flow. But to begin, lets
determine the order in which the steps must
be placed.

Process flow, pass 1

Order of steps
What impacts our decisions on choosing
an order?

1.Geometry
The oxide must be deposited before
the nitride.
2.Temperature
High T processes must go first. High T
processes can cause dopants to further
diffuse and metals to melt and flow.
Which processes are high T?
Oxidation
CVD (unless PECVD)
Drive-in for diffusion

3. Mechanical stress
If a following step can cause a device to
break, you may want to rethink the
order if you can. This is why release
steps are often (though not always) done
last.
4. Interaction of chemicals
If an etch will attack another material, you

Process flow, pass 1

Order of steps
Lets choose an order

1.n-type doping
2.Oxide: Can be done before doping of
resistors if oxide is thin. (Boron will implant
through thin oxide but not if oxide is thick!)
3.Dope resistors
4.Deposit nitride
Do we do backside etch or metallization next?
A long backside etch will attack metal, and so we
must do backside etch first.
Can we pattern nitride and oxide on both front
and back at the same time?
Yes, but etching both sides at the same time will
etch all the way through the silicon and you will
not have a diaphragm! And so we do them at

Mask
1

Process flow, pass 1

Order of steps
Lets choose an order

5.Backside etch:
Before etching backside, we must cut the
nitride and SiO2 using Mask 2. Nitride and
SiO2 on topside protects topside of wafer.
6.Front side etch:
Etch
6 nitride and oxide on topside of wafer

5.Metallization:
How does the metal connect to the doping?
Must cut through the nitride and oxide first.
Holes are called vias or contact cuts.
Must pattern oxide and nitride on topside of
7
wafer
to create contact cuts..
Metallization: Add aluminum for vias and
pads

Podemos
combinarlos,
no?

Mask
3

Mask
2

Pass 2, Detailed process flow

A detailed process flow is the list of all steps necessary for the process people to
implement the device. It should include each of the following:
1. All steps in the proper order, including when to clean the wafer
2. Any chemicals necessary
3. Thicknesses of materials

These choices come for modeling.

The process people can turn chemicals and thicknesses into times
necessary for etches, depositions, etc.

4. Equipment necessary
It is the responsibility of the process flow person to think about which
equipment is necessary for each step. Why? Because if you need a high
temperature deposition to follow a metallization, you need a PECVD to do
it or your metal will flow. The process flow person knows the entire
process and makes design decisions.
1. MASKS for photoligthography

Detailed process flow

Lets revisit each of the basic steps that we came up with and see what is really
involved. You will notice that many of the steps actually turn into several steps
when coming up with the detailed process flow. For this exercise, we will
ignore dimensions and chemicals. However, note that these are also
important components of the design flow.
1. n-type doping
a. No mask is required since it covers the
entire wafer
b. This could be done by purchasing a wafer
with an epilayer or it requires 2 steps
i. implantation
ii.drive-in
2. Oxide
i. No mask is required since it covers the entire
wafer.
ii. Note that oxide will grow on both sides of the
wafer. If you do not want it on the backside of
the wafer, you must protect the backside of the
wafer.
iii. In this case, we do want oxide on both sides of

Detailed process flow

Mask 1

3. Dope resistors and wires

a. Mask 1 what does it look like?
(Assume positive resist.)
b. This step requires 4 total steps
a. Photolithography so that ion
implantation only goes where you
want it to go
b. Ion implantation
c. Remove photoresist (Must be done
before drive-in. Why?)
d. Drive-in
a. Deposit nitride
i. No mask is required since it covers the
entire wafer
ii. Depending on the process, you may need
to process both sides of the wafer.
a. PVD often only deposits on one side of
the wafer.

Mask
1

Detailed process flow

Mask 2

5. Backside etch
a. Mask 2 what does it look like?
(Assume positive resist.)
b. Must align Mask 2 with Mask 1 so that
the resistors are on the edge of the
diaphragm. Alignment marks
c. This step requires 5 steps
a. Photolithography to determine
where you want the backside etch to
start
b. Etch nitride
c. Etch SiO2
d. Etch Si (Nitride and the SiO2 used
as a hard mask for the long Si
etch.)
e. Remove photoresist

Mask
2

Detailed process flow

Mask 3

6. Contact Cuts/Diaphragm cut

7. Mask 3 what does it look like? (Assume
positive resist.)
8. Must align Mask 3 with Mask 1 so that
wires connect to resistors. Alignment
marks
9. This step requires 3 total steps
a. Photolithography to determine
where you want material removed
for the metal
b. Etch the nitride and oxide
c. Remove the photoresist

Mask
3

Detailed process flow

Mask 4

7. Metallization
8. Mask 4 what does it look like? (Assume
positive resist.)
9. Must align Mask 4 with Mask 1 so that
metal does not etch away. Alignment
marks
10. This step requires 4 total steps
a. Deposit the Aluminum
b. Photolithography to determine
which Al you want to remove
c. Etch unwanted Al
d. Remove the photoresist

Mask
4

Pass 3, Final process flow

These steps can be combined to create a final process flow.
One additional requirement in process flows is to include
information about when to clean the wafer. Some general
guidelines are:
Always start with an RCA clean and an HF dip to get rid of every
possible
All future cleans are usually RCA cleans without an HF dip. HF
may etch away your MEMS structures.
Always strip photoresist and clean before high temperature
processes.
Always clean before depositing a new layer.

Final process flow

Final Process Flow for Bulk Micromachined Pressure Sensor
Starting material: 100mm (100) p-type silicon, 11015 cm-3 boron