This paper discusses sputtered silicon encapsulation as a wafer level packaging approach for isolatable MEMS devices. Devices such as accelerometers, RF switches, inductors, and filters that do not require interaction with the surroundings to function, could thus be fully encapsulated at the wafer level after fabrication. A MEMSTech 50g capacitive accelerometer was used to demonstrate a sputter...

In this paper, a novel single-chip MEMS capacitive microphone is presented. The novelties of this method relies on the moveable aluminum (Al) diaphragm positioned over the backplate electrode, where the diaphragm includes a plurality of holes to allow the air in the gap between the electrode and diaphragm to escape and thus reduce acoustical damping in the microphone. Spin-on-glass (SOG) was us...

The authors demonstrate “smart-cut”-type layer transfer of single-crystal silicon carbide (SiC) by using spinon-glass (SoG) as an adhesion layer. Using SoG as an adhesion layer is desirable because it can planarize the surface, facilitate an initial low temperature bond, and withstand the thermal stresses at high temperature where layer splitting occurs (800–900 °C). With SoG, the bonding of wa...

During air-gap formation in interconnects, decomposition process of the sacrificial layer induces deformation of a low-k dielectric cap layer. For analysis of ensuing structural instability, a logistic kinetics model is introduced to describe the removal process of the sacrificial layer, and finite difference method (FDM) is applied to evaluate the deformation behavior of the cap layer. The ins...

Sacrificial layer electrophoretic deposition (SLED) is a technique to assemble nanoparticles that yields free-standing, multilayered nanoparticle films with macroscopic lateral dimensions after the sacrificial layer is dissolved.

The present paper reports the use of an amphoteric copolymer, poly(diallylamine-co-maleic acid) (PDAMA), as a component of precursor layers (or sacrificial layers) for constructing free-standing layer-by-layer (LbL) films. A PDAMA-poly(styrenesulfonate) (PSS) film or PDAMA-poly(dimethyldiallylammonium chloride) (PDDA) film was coated on the surface of a quartz slide at pH 4.0 or 8.0, respective...

A semiconductor processing method for the formation of self-aligned via and trench structures in III-V semiconductor devices in particular, on InP platform is presented, together with fabrication results. As a template for such self-aligned via and trench formations in a surrounding polymer layer on a semiconductor device, we make use of a sacrificial layer that consists of either a SiO2 dielec...

In this work, we describe a simple 1-mask sacrificial layer process that allows us to prototype a tuneable capacitor. The process is specially optimized to procure a dual picks profile of the sacrificial layer. The geometry design and the influence of the structural material stress were considered through the finite element analysis. The FEM simulation with Ansys was used to study in detail pro...

The effect of two different dopants, P and Ga, in spin-on glass ~SOG! films on impurity-free vacancy disordering ~IFVD! in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum-well structures has been investigated. It is observed that by varying the annealing and baking temperatures, P-doped SOG films created a similar amount of intermixing as the undoped SOG films. This is different from the results of other studies of P-dope...

The effect of a sacrificial layer residue on a cantilever beam in the nano-electro-mechanical nonvolatile memory is investigated for the optimization of reliability characteristics. Different from previous research, pull in voltage model of nano-electro-mechanical nonvolatile memory used triangular residue layer which is considered by real wet etching process. Modified pull in voltage model was...