Sensors and Actuators A 160 (2010) 3541

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Sensors and Actuators A: Physical

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/sna

A hollow stiffening structure for low-pressure sensors

P.K. Kinnell , J. King, M. Lester, R. Craddock
GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies, Fir Tree Lane, Groby, Leicestershire, UK

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 15 December 2009
Received in revised form 18 February 2010
Accepted 12 March 2010
Available online 18 March 2010
Keywords:
Pressure sensor
Electrochemical etch
Hollow structure
Boss
Diaphragm
Silicon

a b s t r a c t
This paper presents a novel process for producing thin-walled hollow stiffening structures on thin silicon diaphragms using an electrochemical etch-stop process. Examples of structures produced using the
method are presented together with focused ion beam (FIB) analysis of critical areas within the structure. These demonstrate the integrity of the structures and show that the process is suitable for use in
MEMS sensor applications. Using this process a 30 mbar full-scale differential pressure sensor has been
demonstrated, and used to verify the suitability of these hollow structures for use in MEMS sensors. The
novel process allows for increased sensor performance, with reduced die size. Details of the pressure
sensor design and characterization are presented, showing a device with 18 mV/V full-scale output with
linearity <0.4% (terminal base non-linearity).
2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Piezoresistive silicon pressure sensors typically consist of a
wheatstone bridge of piezoresistors fabricated on a square silicon
diaphragm. The sensitivity of these sensors will be inversely proportional to the square of the diaphragm thickness, and directly
proportional to diaphragm area [1]. To fabricate higher sensitivity devices the designer is forced to increase die size or reduce
diaphragm thickness. Cost constraints often lead the designer
towards reducing die size. Therefore the approach taken is generally to reduce diaphragm thickness in order to meet the required
sensitivity. Silicon diaphragms for MEMS pressure sensors are typically fabricated by wet anisotropic etching of a cavity into bulk
silicon, and to achieve a required diaphragm thickness requires
careful timing of this etch. Even if great care is taken to continually
monitor the etch in order to achieve the desired thickness, process
variation from wafer to wafer, and from die to die within a wafer
will ultimately dictate the minimum practicable thickness. Typically diaphragms thinner than 40 m prove challenging for many
manufacturing environments [2]. To overcome this problem there
are a number of etch-stop methods that may be employed to automatically stop or limit the anisotropic etching once the required
thickness has been reached. Examples of such techniques are, the
use of silicon on insulator wafers [3], the boron etch-stop process
[4], or an electrochemical etch-stop [5,2]. In this work the electro-

Corresponding author at: GE Sensing, Silicon Engineering, Fir Tree Lane, Groby,
Leicestershire, LE60FH, UK. Tel.: +44 1162317507.
E-mail address: Peter.kinnell@ge.com (P.K. Kinnell).
0924-4247/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.sna.2010.03.024

chemical etch-stop technique is used to form the basis of a novel

process that rstly addresses the issue of increased sensitivity by
allowing thinner diaphragms, but also allows for additional structuring of the diaphragms to improve other device performance
characteristics such as output linearity.
As high sensor linearity is often a very attractive sensor characteristic, at silicon diaphragms are generally modied with the
addition of a lump or boss structure to stiffen the centre of the
diaphragm. Fig. 1 shows a micrograph of a typical pressure sensor diaphragm with a central stiffening boss, the cross-section
marked on the micrograph can be seen as a schematic in Fig. 3b.
These features improve linearity by limiting strain stiffening of the
diaphragm, which is a signicant cause of output non-linearity [6].
The addition of such stiffening bosses is often done at the expense
of other device parameters such as die size. Fabricating the boss on
the diaphragm generally increases die size, and the additional mass
that is suspended will tend to cause increased acceleration sensitivity. This acceleration sensitivity becomes especially critical as
higher sensitivity pressure sensors are fabricated. This is because
the diaphragm that is supporting the boss becomes increasingly
exible, thus any inertial loads imposed on the boss will result in
a greater deection of the diaphragm and thus be seen as a more
signicant proportion of the sensor output.
To address these issues this work presents a novel fabrication
route that allows for a wide variety of hollow structures to be fabricated on the surface of a thin silicon diaphragm. These structures
may be used, in effect, as hollow bosses that have considerable stiffness relative to the diaphragm, yet due to their hollow construction
add very little mass to the diaphragm (see Fig. 3c). The diaphragm
and hollow bosses are produced using an electrochemical etch-

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Fig. 1. Micrograph of an etched pressure sensor diaphragm with a solid lump at the
centre, the diaphragm is approximately 1.5 mm square.

Fig. 3. Cross-sectional schematic view of a boss etched into a wafer follow (1 1 1)

crystal planes.

stop technique and therefore this allows for controlled etching of

thin diaphragms that are <10 m in thickness. The combination of
these features allows the advantages gained by a stiffening boss
in terms of sensor linearity, without either the negative affects of
inertial sensitivity, or unnecessary increase in die size that may
result from traditional fabrication techniques that produce solid
bosses. For example the increase in die size comes about due to the
constraints imposed by standard processing methods. These typically require that the boss is patterned on the surface of a wafer
then etched down following (1 1 1) crystal planes to reveal pyramid
shaped bosses with sloping sidewalls of 54.7 as shown in Fig. 2.
Etching bosses in this way means the designer is constrained to
use bosses that may be taller or wider than required. This has the
adverse affect of removing active diaphragm area and therefore
leads to an increased die size, as the designer has to compensate
by increasing the diaphragm area. The hollow boss process is not
limited by these constraints and allows boss heights independent
of wafer thickness.
In the following sections the innovative process that was developed to fabricate hollow bosses will be described, demonstrating
that in principle the technique may be used to create a wide range
of generic hollow structures suitable for many MEMS applications.
A specic example of the technology is then given in the form of
a piezoresistive pressure sensor. A description of the design and
fabrication work carried out to develop test samples of a prototype
pressure sensor are detailed. Finally, analysis and characterization
are presented that verify the performance of the pressure sensor and validate the feasibility of the hollow structures for use as
mechanical elements in MEMS sensors.

Fig. 2. Cross-sections of three types of pressure sensor diaphragm, type a is the

most basic form of diaphragm that is completely at, type b is the traditional form
of diaphragm that contains a solid lump, and type c is a hollow version of the solid
lump.

2. The hollow boss process

In order to create thin-walled hollow structures using wet etching in a KOH solution the hollow boss process has been developed.
An overview of the process is shown in Fig. 4 and it consists of
ve main process steps. Firstly a p-type silicon wafer is prepared
and suitably patterned for etching (step 1); then a negative of the
required boss is etched into a silicon wafer (step 2); the etched feature is implanted to render a layer of n-type silicon in the p-type
substrate (step 3); a second n-type layer is then fusion bonded over
the previously etched and implanted features (step 4); nally the
p-type substrate material is etched away using an electrochemical
etch-stop process to reveal a hollow structure.
The electrochemical etch-stop, which is a key part of the process,
results from the application of an anodic potential to silicon in OHcontaining solution that causes the formation of silicon oxide on the
silicon surface, known as passivation. The process demonstrated
here utilises the difference in passivation potentials of n-type and
p-type silicon to generate an automatic etch-stop process that can
preserve a hollow boss structure [5,7]. A xed voltage, between
the n-type and p-type passivation potentials, allows the p-type to
etch, but causes passivation on reaching the n-type layer, marked
by the cessation of bubble evolution at the etch surface. Since silicon
oxide etches at a rate of approximately 100th that of silicon n-type
and is self-sustaining under the cell potential, the integrity of the
etch-stopped layer may be preserved for many times the lifetime
of a standard sacricial oxide. The electrochemical etch-stop was
set-up as shown in Fig. 5.
To calculate the correct passivation voltage, data showing the
relationship between current and voltage was collected for wafers
and electrodes being used, see Fig. 6. The maximum current reached
on the chart shown in Fig. 6 corresponds to the passivation potential, which was 1.05 V. A power supply (indicated by PS in Fig. 5)
with xed anodic potential of at least 1.2 V was connected to an
aluminum contact on the n-type layer of the silicon wafer, such
that the wafer potential was always above the n-type passivation
potential. The n-type surface was wax-bonded onto glass for protection of the sensing structure. A nickel plate was inserted into
the solution and formed the cathode. The p-type silicon etched in
normal anisotropic fashion in the aqueous KOH solution, as it was
well below the p-type passivation potential. The electrochemical
etch-stop ensured passivation of the hollow structure and allowed
it to be fully revealed as the etch progressed.

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37

Fig. 4. Process ow to create hollow boss structure.

Fig. 5. Diagram of electrochemical etch-stop equipment set up.

In this way n-type structures were preserved to full integrity

during a wet anisotropic etch, evidenced by the fabrication of the
hollow boss structure in Fig. 7. This micrograph shows that complete removal of the p-type silicon was obtained, leaving the n-type
layer with the buried hollow boss structures bonded to it. The hol-

low boss structure shown in Fig. 7, is approximately 400 m square,

80 m deep with a wall thickness of 3 m. These relatively large
very thin-walled structures were seen as a good test of the ability
of the process to produce well-formed hollow bosses. Of particular interest was the area of intersection between the diaphragm
and the walls of the hollow boss as shown in Fig. 7a, an arrow indicates the point of interface between the boss and diaphragm noting
that the wall thickness at this interface is approximately 3 m. If
these areas are not fully bonded together then the use of the hollow bosses as structural elements in sensors may be prohibited due
to poor mechanical stability. The structural integrity of the hollow bosses were analysed using a combination of focus ion beam
(FIB) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques. Using
the FIB system a section of the hollow boss was removed by ion
milling such that the interface between the walls of the boss and the
diaphragm could be observed. A magnied image of this cut section
is shown in Fig. 7b, from which it can be seen that there are no voids
or other structural faults that may lead to poor performance. The
hole that was cut in the at section at the top of the boss was used
to measure the top layer thickness. This was found to be approximately 2.4 m indicating the sidewalls at the base of the boss are
slightly thicker than the at top of the boss. It is expected that the
top of the boss will be slightly thinner that the base due to the etch
rate of the silicon under etch-stop conditions, which is set by the
passivation oxide etch rate. This structure demonstrates that large
thin-walled structures may be created with this process. In this
work the negatives used to create the hollow bosses were created
using anisotropic etching, hence the pyramidal shape. These negative structures can also be created using other etching techniques.
For example, isotropic etching or deep reactive ion etches may be
used to create bosses with either rounded or vertical sidewalls,
depending on the required application.
3. Test sensor design

Fig. 6. Chart showing relationship between current and voltage for the electrochemical etch-stop process.

The hollow structures detailed above demonstrate that hollow

bosses may be manufactured, however, to determine if these structures may be used as part of MEMS sensors a low-pressure sensor
was designed and fabricated using hollow bosses and the process
described above. A low-pressure sensor was specically chosen as
this type of device benets from the controlled thin diaphragms
given by the hollow boss process, as well as optimal sensitivity and
linearity due to the addition of hollow bosses. The low-pressure
sensor was designed to have a target full-scale pressure in the
range of 2030 mbar. This is based on achieving an electrical output
of approximately 20 mV/V output at full-scale pressure. A lowpressure sensor was chosen to demonstrate this process, as this
is a challenging area of design space for pressure sensors. It would
benet from the combination of an electrochemical etch-stop to
control diaphragm thickness with the hollow boss process to optimise sensor performance.

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Fig. 7. (a) Focused ion beam section cut from a hollow boss and (b) close-up of cut section that is indicated by the arrow shown in (a).

The pressure sensor was designed with a diaphragm of 1550 m

square and 5 m thick, onto which three hollow boss structures
80 m high were xed. The wall thickness of the hollow bosses
was designed to be approximately 10 m; the overall geometry of the diaphragm can be seen in Fig. 8. As mentioned above,
the most basic pressure sensor would comprise of a simple at
diaphragm (see the cross-section shown in Fig. 3a). In this work
three bosses have been added to the diaphragm to improve sensor performance. Adding the three bosses to the diaphragm is
effective because it stiffens the diaphragm in the regions of the
bosses but keeps the diaphragm exible elsewhere. This means
that when pressure is applied to the diaphragm stress is concentrated in the areas that are kept exible between the bosses. To
illustrate this Fig. 9 shows an exaggerated deection plot resulting
from pressure applied to the lower side of the diaphragm (created using Ansys FEA software). From the plot it can be seen that
the bosses remain rigid with the areas of diaphragm between the
bosses and the frame taking up all the bending and therefore developing maximum tensile and compressive stresses. The arrows in
Fig. 9 indicate the areas of maximum and minimum stress situated between the lumps. A close-up of this area is also shown in
Fig. 10, in this plot the areas of uniform stress that have been created between the bosses can be seen. This is a key advantage of
this type of diaphragm over a conventional at diaphragm. Uniform stresses have thus been created between the bosses aiding
the positioning of piezoresistors to sense pressure-induced stress.
The resistors would therefore be positioned in these regions as
indicated on the diagram shown in Fig. 11. In this diagram the
positions of the resistors are shown relative to the bosses, and the
corresponding position of each resistor in the sensing bridge is also
shown.

Fig. 8. Geometry of low-pressure test sensor with three hollow bosses.

Fig. 9. Stress plot from Ansys 10.0 nite element software after a pressure is applied
to the lower side of the diaphragm, the exaggerated deection plot illustrates how
the bosses remain rigid and stress is concentrated in the areas of diaphragm between
the bosses.

As well as ease of positioning of the piezoresistors, the three

bosses also concentrate stress such that for a given diaphragm
area an increased sensor output is achieved with a reduced nonlinearity. The exact size of the three bosses was arrived at following

Fig. 10. Close-up stress plot of the areas of maximum and minimum stress situated
between the hollow mesas. The view is from below the diaphragm looking up with
the hollow bosses on the far side.

P.K. Kinnell et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 160 (2010) 3541

39

Fig. 11. Schematic top view of the test sensor showing the three hollow bosses on a diaphragm with the position of the piezoresistive elements shown relative to the bosses,
along with a diagram of the wheatstone bridge used and the corresponding position of the resistors in the bridge.

an iterative optimisation process carried out using nite element

analysis methods. As a basic comparison the estimated output
for two comparative devices was considered, these were a at
diaphragm, and a diaphragm with a solid boss of 380 m, see Fig. 12.
The solid boss was constrained to be 380 m high, which corresponds to the thickness of a typically available silicon wafer. The
overall size and thickness of the diaphragms was kept the same at
1550 m square and 5 m thick. For the solid boss die it must be
noted that only one boss is used that has the same base length as
the central boss on the hollow boss device. The side bosses have
not been added because these bosses are constrained to be 380 m
tall, which as a result of the anisotropic etching process means they
become to wide to t them on the diaphragm. The comparison was
done using Ansys FEA software to run a non-linear static analysis
of the diaphragms under the inuence of a pressure load, and a linear static analysis under the inuence of an acceleration load. The
pressure load was specically a pressure of 1000 mbar applied to
both sides of the diaphragm to simulate line pressure, with an additional pressure of 16 mbar applied to the at side of the diaphragm
to simulate the small differential pressure being sensed. For the
case of the diaphragm with a hollow boss the inside of the boss
was modeled as being at 0 pressure. This simulates the vacuum
inside the boss that is expected due to the fusion bonding process used to create it. The results shown in Table 1 demonstrate
that introducing hollow bosses results in the highest sensitivity
and the best linearity as compared to the alternatives. Sensitivity is approximately a factor of three better than the alternatives,
with similar non-linearity to the solid boss diaphragm. The results
for acceleration sensitivity indicate that while the at diaphragm
is the least sensitive as expected, the hollow boss device is only
three times more sensitive and is a factor of 10 less sensitive than
the solid boss device. With these performance advantages in mind
a three boss design was chosen to demonstrate the feasibility of
the hollow boss process. A micrograph of the fabricated sensor,
Table 1
Comparison of at diaphragm versus a diaphragm with hollow bosses.
Device

Sensitivity
(mV/V/mbar)

Linearity
(%f.s.TBNL)

G-sensitivity
(ppm of f.s./g)

Hollow boss 80 m height

Solid boss 380 m height
No boss at diaphragm

1.16
0.37
0.39

0.48
0.50
4 64

11
114
3

which is based on the dimensions detailed above, is shown in

Fig. 13.
4. Characterization of hollow boss sensor performance
To fully determine whether the hollow structures were stable
enough for use in a MEMS sensor the performance of the fabricated
low-pressure die was assessed. Thermal stability at 125 C, pressure
sensitivity and linearity, and pressure hysteresis were all characterized using the fabricated die. Packaging stress is a well-known
source of sensor instability, therefore to assess the stability of the
die only, special care was taken to remove these affects. Die were
solely attached to test electronics by means of the gold wire-bonds
made to the chip such that the die were essentially oating on
the 25 m gold wires to minimise the affects of packaging induced
stress. The measured stability would therefore be due solely to the
inuence of the silicon die with hollow bosses and therefore be a
good indicator of the ultimate performance that may be achieved
using hollow bosses.
Die were heated to 125 C in an oven, after approximately 8 h
a fully stable temperature was reached. The variation in 0 mbar
offset from this point was measured in percentage change of the
sensor full-scale. The full-scale output was not measured for these
units, as the oating construction did not allow for a differential
pressure to be applied to the diaphragm. Therefore this was estimated to be 18 mV/V, which is a value of full-scale output that is
consistent with the measured sensitivity for other die. Two die
were mounted in this way and held at 125 C for a 450-h period
and total drift was approximately 0.02% of full-scale, as shown by
the chart in Fig. 14. This level of drift was deemed to be acceptable and in line with the performance of other MEMS pressure
sensors.
To test for pressure sensitivity, linearity, and pressure hysteresis
a die was bonded to a stainless steel packaged such that a differential pressure ranging from 0 to 30 mbar could be applied to the
device using a low-pressure Ruska pressure controller. The sensitivity of the device was determined to be 0.5 mV/V/mbar (see
Fig. 15), with a terminal base non-linearity of less that 0.4% of
full-scale (see Fig. 16). There was no indication of pressure hysteresis on return to 0 mbar after pressure cycling, demonstrating
the good structural nature of the hollow boss to diaphragm interface.

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P.K. Kinnell et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 160 (2010) 3541

Fig. 14. Zero offset drift for two sensors over a 450 h period spent at 125 C.

Fig. 15. Plot of device output, with sensitivity indicated.

Fig. 12. Quarter sections of the three hollow bosses die, a single solid boss die, and
a simple at diaphragm die.

Fig. 16. Plot of terminal based non-linearity calculated for two hollow boss devices.

5. Conclusion

Fig. 13. Micrograph of the hollow bosses shown on a silicon diaphragm.

A novel process for the fabrication of hollow boss structures

mounted to thin silicon diaphragms has been developed. These
structures have been employed to create hollow stiffening bosses
for use in a 30 mbar full-scale pressure sensor. The feasibility
of the process to create structural elements that may form part
of a micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) device has been

P.K. Kinnell et al. / Sensors and Actuators A 160 (2010) 3541

demonstrated through the fabrication and testing a hollow test

structure that spanned a width of 400 m with a height of 80 m
and a wall thickness of only 3 m (see Fig. 7). This type of structure may be used in a variety of MEMS applications for example
as thin-walled encapsulations layers, thermal isolation structures,
or as in this example for producing hollow stiffening structures
on silicon diaphragms. The fabricated pressure sensor showed the
suitability of these structures for use as structural elements in
MEMS sensors. This was demonstrated by the excellent thermal
stability and absence of any pressure hysteresis that would not be
possible if the hollow structure was not a fully integral part of the
sensor.
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[3] M.J. Madou, Fundamentals of Microfabrication the Science of Miniaturization,
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[4] J.C. Greenwood, Etched silicon vibrating sensor, J. Phys. E: Sci. Instrum. 17 (1984)
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[5] M. Hirata, K. Suzuki, H. Tanigawa, Silicon diaphragm pressure sensor fabricated
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41

Biographies
Peter Kinnell Peter Kinnell gained a MEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Birmingham (UK), and The Danish Technical University in 2001. After
graduating he continued his studies at the University of Birmingham undertaking a
PhD in MEMS sensor design, specializing in advanced packaging for resonant strain
gauges. Since completing his PhD he has worked as a senior design engineer at GE
Sensing. His work has included a range of products from large volume medical and
automotive sensor applications to high performance resonant pressure sensors.
Russell Craddock Russell Craddock graduated with a BSc in Chemistry before undertaking an MSc in Semiconductor Devices. He joined the Lucas Research Centre to
investigate silicon pressure sensor and accelerometer design before transferring to
Lucas NovaSensor in the USA to work on the development of automotive accelerometers. In 1992 Russell joined Druck Ltd. now GE Sensing, leading piezoresistive and
resonant pressure sensors development for GE Druck and automotive pressure and
accelerometer products for GE NovaSensor.
Jim King Jim King graduated with a BSc (Open) with a Physics Diploma from
the Open University. His semiconductor engineering background includes working for Agilent Technologies fabricating lasers, photodetectors and diodes, Corning
Research developing semiconductor optical ampliers and electro-absorption modulators, Plastic Logic working on the development of polymer transistor arrays and
exible displays. He has worked for GE Sensing since 2005 as a Senior Process Engineer developing and aiding manufacture of piezoresistive and resonant pressure
sensors.
Mandy Lester Mandy Lester is currently studying for an MPhys degree at the
University of Manchester, where her research interests have ranged from ozone
measurement by Brewer spectrophotometry to radio thin layer chromatography
for medical PET imaging. She is due to graduate July 2010 and plans to pursue a
career in nuclear or renewable energy.