Soft‐Chemistry‐Assisted On‐Chip Integration of Nanostructured α‐Quartz Microelectromechanical System

The development of advanced piezoelectric α-quartz microelectromechanical system (MEMS) for sensing and precise frequency control applications requires the nanostructuration on-chip integration this material on silicon material. However, current quartz manufacturing methods are based bonding bulk micromachined crystals silicon, which limits size, performance, cost, scalability microdevices. Here, chemical solution deposition, soft-nanoimprint lithography, top-down microfabrication processes combined to develop first nanostructured epitaxial (100)α-quartz/(100)Si cantilevers. coherent Si/quartz interface film thinness with a controlled silicon–insulator–silicon technology substrates provide high force mass sensitivity while preserving mechanical quality factor systems. This work proves that biocompatible α-quartz-based MEMS can be engineered at low cost by combining soft-chemistry lithographic techniques.