Lecture 2

MEMS

Electrostatic Comb Drive Fabrication: Step 1

SiO2

LPCVD Nitride

Silicon substrate

Thee fabrication
ab cat o pprocess
ocess beg
beginss w
with
t a sta
standard
da d bblanket
a et n+ ddiffusion
us o oof
the substrate to define the substrate ground plane. Next, the wafer is
passivated with a layer of 15 nm thick LPCVD (Low Pressure Chemical
Vapor Deposition) nitride deposited on top of a layer of 50 nm thick
thermally grown Si02

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Electrostatic Comb Drive Fabrication: Step 2

The nitride and silicon dioxide layers are then patterned and etched to
open contact windows to the substrate ground plane
3

Electrostatic Comb Drive Fabrication: Step 3

Polysilicon ground plane

A layer
l
off 30 nm thick
thi k in
i situ
it phosphorus-doped
h h
d d polysilicon
l ili
i
is
deposited by LPCVD process at 650 C. The polysilicon layer is then
patterned and etched dry. This layer serves as a second electrode plane
and the interconnection to the n+ diffusion.
4

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Electrostatic Comb Drive Fabrication: Step 4

PSG

A 2 m-thick phosphosilicate glass (PSG) layer is then deposited by

LPCVD process. This layer will act as the sacrificial layer to define
the gap between the structure and the ground plane
5

Electrostatic Comb Drive Fabrication: Step 5

The PSG layer is then patterned and etched selectively to define the
anchors of the microstructures.
6

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Electrostatic Comb Drive Fabrication: Step 6

Structural polysilicon

The 2 m-thick polysilicon structural layer is then deposited by

LPCVD (undoped) process.
7

Electrostatic Comb Drive Fabrication: Step 7

2nd PSG layer

The structural layer is doped by depositing another layer of 30 nm

thick PSG using LPCVD process and then annealing at 950 C for
one hour.
Doping is done to reduce resistivity of the comb structure and
annealing is necessary to reduce the residual stress
8

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Electrostatic Comb Drive Fabrication: Step 8

The top PSG layer is then stripped by wet etching in 10:1diluated

hydrofluoric acid. The polysilicon layer is then patterned using a
photoresist to define the plates, beams and electrostatic comb drive
and sense structures.
9

Electrostatic Comb Drive Fabrication: Step 9

Movable electrode

Fixed electrode

Anchor

After patterning, the polysilicon layer is anisotropically etched using

CCl4 plasma (reactive-ion etching) to achieve nearly vertical
sidewalls. Wafer is then immersed in 10:1 diluted HF to etch away
the sacrificial PSG layer. The wafer is rinsed repeatedly with DI
water for at least 30 minutes after the micromachining step is
completed and then dried in a standard spin dryer.

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10

Material Properties
Crystal Structures

In a crystalline material, the atoms are situated

in a repeating or periodic three dimensional
array over large atomic distances.

Properties of the crystalline solid depend on

the crystalline structure of the material.

Lattice means a three dimensional array of

points coinciding with atom positions.

The basic atomic pattern that repeats itself in a

crystalline material is called a unit cell.

Face centered cubic lattice (fcc) refers to a

unit cell where atoms are located at each of
the corners and the centers of all the cube
faces.

Face centered
cubic lattice

11

Miller Indices

Miller Indices are a symbolic vector

representation for the orientation of an
atomic plane in a cubic crystal lattice and
are defined as the reciprocals of the
f i l intercepts
fractional
i
which
hi h the
h plane
l
makes
k
with the crystallographic axes.

To determine Miller indices of a plane take

the following steps:

1. Determine the intercepts of the plane along

each of the three crystallographic directions

a lattice constant

2. Take the reciprocals of the intercepts

3. If fractions result, multiply each by the
denominator of the smallest fraction
12

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Crystal Directions

Many planes in an crystalline solid are

equivalent.

Six equivalent faces of a cubic lattice

are expressed as {100}.

A direction in a lattice is expressed as a

set of three integers with the same
relationship as the components of a
vector in that direction and expressed
as [100].

Theyy are determined in the same wayy

as the Miller indices are determined.

Equivalent directions are grouped and

expressed as <100> directions.

In a cubic lattice, a direction [hkl] is

perpendicular to a plane (hkl).

13

Miller Indices Determination: (100) Plane

Unit cell length=a
h

Intercept length

Take reciprocal

1/1

1/

1/

Cleared fraction

Miller indice: (100)

14

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Miller Indices Determination: (110) Plane

Unit cell length=a
h

Intercept length

Take reciprocal

1/1

1/1

1/

Cleared fraction

Miller indice: (110)

15

Miller Indices Determination:

More Examples

Miller indice: (210)

16

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Silicon Crystal Structure

The Si diamond lattice is composed of two interpenetrating fcc

lattices, one displaced 1/4 of a lattice constant in each direction from
the other

Each site is tetrahedrally coordinated with four other sites in the other
sublattice

Silicon unit cell has a side length, a of 5.4309

17

Si Unit Cell

18

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Thin Film vs. Bulk Solid

The properties of a material are determined by the

cooperative effect of a huge number of similar
particles (atoms, lattice, etc.) in a 3D arrangement.

Many physical properties of materials require a

larger ensemble of atoms for a meaningful
definition, independent of the amount of material,
for example, density, the thermal expansion
coefficient, hardness, color, electrical and thermal
conductivity.

With solid
lid materials,
t i l the
th properties
ti off surfaces
f
may
differ from the bulk conditions.

In the classical case, the number of surface atoms

and molecules is small compared with the number
of bulk particles.

Thin film or
surface layer

Bulk
The thin film
layer may be a
few atoms or a
few lattice
constant thick

19

Effects of Bonding Forces on Material Properties

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The properties of a material are controlled by the bond strengths

between the particles.

In classical technology and usually also in microtechnology, a

separation between the bonding forces in the bulk material and
the surface forces has some significance.
significance

Both internal and external bonds are based on interatomic

interactions, and the chemical bonds.

Besides the spatial separation of a material, the orientation of the

internal and the surface bonds also determine the properties of
p
materials or of material compounds.

Conventional technology uses materials with isotropic properties.

Isotropic means that these properties are approximated as being
similar in all spatial orientations of the solid.

Materials may exhibit 30% variation of Youngs modulus

depending on crystal orientation.

20

10

Various Stages of Solidification of a Crystalline Material

21

Density Fluctuation in crystalline Thin Films

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The macroscopic model of ideal isotropy is also not valid

for monocrystalline materials such as silicon, gallium
arsenide or other typical microelectronic materials.

A monocrystalline solid excludes the statistical distribution

off inter-atomic
i t
t i distances
di t
andd off bond
b d orientations.
i t ti

It includes elementary cells consisting of a few atoms, and

a randomly oriented plane results in a density fluctuating
with the angle of this plane.

In addition, the bond strength between atoms is localized

and is determined from its orientation
orientation.

Such elementary cells create the solid in a periodic

arrangement in an identical orientation.

So the anisotropy of the particle density and bond strength

on the atomic scale is transformed into macroscopic
dimensions.

22

11

Origin of Anisotropy

A classification of isotropic is justified as long as the individual

crystals are much smaller than the smallest dimension of a technical
structure created by the material.

If the dimensions of the deposited thin films are of comparable scale

with
ith th
the crystal
t l llattice
tti di
dimensions,
i
they
th possess a high
hi h anisotropy
i t
even for a material with macroscopic isotropy.

The anisotropy of a monocrystalline material is determined by the

anisotropic electron configuration and the electronic interactions
between the atoms of the crystal.

It is based on the arrangement of the locations of the highest

occupation probability of the electrons, especially of the outer
electrons responsible for chemical bonds.

The length, strength and direction of the bonds as well as the number
of bonds per atom in a material therefore determine the integral
properties of the material and the spatial dependence on it.
23

Origin of Anisotropy

Non-crystalline materials created by surface deposition processes can

also show anisotropy.

Almost all thin layers prepared by evaporation or sputtering exhibit

anisotrop due
anisotropy
d e to the preferred positioning by
b an initial nucleation
n cleation
and a limited surface mobility of the particles, which results in grain
boundaries and the overall morphology of the layer.

Even spin-coated polymer layers have such anisotropic properties,

because the shear forces induced by the flow of the thin film lead to a
preferred orientation of the chain-like molecules parallel to the
substrate plane.

The transition from an almost isotropic to an anisotropic situation is

partly based on the downscaling of the dimensions. For example, a
material consists of many small crystals, so these statistically
distributed crystals appear in total as an isotropic material.
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12

Stress

Stress is the force per unit area that is acting on a surface of a

differential volume element of a solid.

It is assumed that the differential volume is in static equilibrium,

I there
I.e.
h
are no significant
i ifi
f
forces
or torques createdd by
b gravity,
i
electric fields, magnetic fields, or inertial forces.

Each surface has two types of forces, normal (x, y, z) and

shear (xy, yz, zx).

The convention is that the shear force is given a subscript in

which the first element refer to the surface,
surface and the second refer
to the direction.

25

Stresses on a Differential Volume

26

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13

Two-dimensional (View of the Differential Volume)

Stresses on opposite surfaces

are equal in magnitude and
acting in opposite direction
when the differential volume
is in static equilibrium.

The condition of zero net

torque requires the following
relationship between the
shear forces:

27

Tensors

A tensor expresses the relation between material response or force

with respect to the axes of its underlying symmetry to the axes of
response or force in a laboratory frame.

A first rank tensor is a spatial vector: its three components refer to the
axes of some reference frame.

A second rank tensor has 9 components, like a matrix. Each

component is associated with two axes: one from the set of the
reference frame axes and one from the material frame axes.

A third rank tensor is a relationship between a first rank tensor and a

second rank tensor, and so on.

An N-rank tensor will have 3N components, but there may be

symmetry relations that reduce the number of independent
components considerably.
28

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14

3-D Stress Tensor

The six elements of stress can be represented as a second rank

tensor

The stress tensor is symmetric so it is uniquely identified by six

numbers. Of these six, only three are linearly independent.

This follows from the fact that symmetric,

symmetric second-rank
second rank tensors
have only non-zero elements along its diagonal when the
coordinate system is chosen to coincide with the principal axes
of the stress tensor (rotation eliminates shear).

29

Different Axial Stress States

Uniaxial stress:

0 0
0 0 0
0 0 0
1 0

Biaxial stress:

0 2 0
0 0 0
ave 0

Hydrostatic stress:

0 ave 0
0 0

0ave
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15

Pure Shear Stress

All stress states can be

represented in terms of tensile
forces (which may be
negative, i.e. compressive)
only, provided that the
coordinate system is correctly
chosen.

Some solids are weaker under

tensile loads than shear loads.

These materials therefore tend

to break along the principal
axes of the stress.

Principal
coordinate
di
System (Only
normal stress)

45 degrees
t ti off the
th
rotation
coordinate
system (Only
shear stress)
31

Stress in Different Coordinate Systems

In a coordinate system that is rotated through an angle , the

uniaxial normal stress is transformed into a combination of
normal and shear stresses.

32

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16

Strain

A solid body under mechanical stress will deform.

The deformation can be quantified in terms of the displacement

vector, u(x).

The strain tensor is defined in terms of the partial derivatives of

the displacement.

Strain is a dimensionless variable.

variable

33

Axial Strain & Shear Strain

34

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17

Poisson Ratio

Under uniaxial stress, the volume element expands in the direction

of the stress and contracts in the directions orthogonal to the stress.

The contraction is proportional to the elongation, and the

pproportionality
p
y constant is the Poisson ratio v.

The Poisson ratio is dimensionless, and has a value between 0.2

and 0.3 for most materials, although highly structured materials can
have Poisson ratios outside this range (even negative values are
possible).
35

Elasticity Curve

In MEMS we want to operate in the linear region of the stress vs.

strain characteristics.

This ensures that no work is done on the compliant structure,

structure
which then can undergo large numbers of deformations without
changing its performance.

Brittle materials (silicon, silicon dioxide, silicon nitride) are

therefore often preferable to ductile and viscoelastic materials
(metals, plastics)

36

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18

Mechanical Properties of Single Crystal Silicon

Single crystal silicon is very

brittle. It will yield and fracture
when stress is beyond the
proportional limit (yield point)

Silicon does not exhibit plastic

deformation or creep below 800 C

With 108 cyclic load Silicon does

not fail

Youngs modulus E (111) of

silicon is 190 GPa, comparing to
206-235 for stainless steel

Yield strength of Aluminum is 35

MPa, 1400 MPa for some steels
and 2800-6800 MPA for silicon
37

Silicon has a lower density (2.32 g/cm3) than Aluminum (2.71

g/cm3) but surpasses the yield strength of steel

Above 800C silicon shows considerable plasticity

Volume Change Under Stress

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The volume of an element changes

g as a consequence
q
of the strain.
The volume change is:

The volume expansion is proportional to (1-2 ), which means that

materials with =00.55 does not change their volume under uniaxial
stress.

Materials with Poissons ratios close to 0.5 are called

incompressible.

Most materials have Poissons ratios less than 0.5, and experience
38
some volume increase under uniaxial stress.

19

Shear and Bulk modulus of Elasticity

Shear modulus G expresses the ratio of shear stress and shear strain

Shear modulus is related to the Youngs modulus and the Poisson

ratio
i by:
b

Bulk modulus is analog of Youngs modulus for an object subject to

hydrostatic pressure (identical normal stress in all directions).

Bulk modulus, K is related to the Youngs modulus and the Poisson

ratio by:

39

Isotropic Elasticity in Three Dimensions

The complete stress-strain relations for an isotropic elastic solid

can be derived by combining the results for normal and shear
stresses in three dimensions

40

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20

Isotropic, Orthotropic, and Cubic Materials

The stress-strain models presented so far apply only to homogeneous

and isotropic materials.

Homogeneous refers to the fact that the elastic properties do not

change from point to point in the body.

Isotropic means that the properties do not vary with respect to

directions.

Many engineering materials are not isotropic. Their elastic properties

vary depending on directions. They may also be inhomogeneous.

For inhomogeneous materials, in general, each strain is dependent on

each stress and can be expressed as a linear function of each stress

A material which exhibits symmetry with respect to three mutually

orthogonal planes is called an orthotropic material.

If the properties of an orthotropic material are identical in all three

directions, the material is said to have a cubic structure.
41

Plane stress is a special case that occurs very frequently in thin film
materials used in MEMS devices.

A thin film deposited on a thick substrate develop some stress due to

deposition condition or method applied or due to the different
coefficient linear thermal expansion.
p

All of the stresses, except the edge regions lie in the plane since the
top surface is stress free.

There is no in-plane shear stress.

Biaxial plane stress occurs when the two in-plane stress components
are equal.

Plane Stress

42

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21

Elastic Constants for Anisotropic Materials

A generalized expression of elastic constants relating stress and strain

for isotropic, orthotropic, or anisotropic materials can be developed.

Since both stress and strain are second rank tensors, the most general
relationship
l ti hi between
b t
stress
t
andd strain
t i is
i a fourth
f th rankk tensor,
t
with
ith 34
or 81 components.

Due to symmetry, in every real material there is a maximum of 21

parameters to contend with, and these 21 components can be written
as the elements of a square 6 x6 symmetric matrix.

The six independent components of stress and strain (having axes

along the symmetry axes of the material) are organized into a column
vector array and the elastic constants are written in a symmetric
matrix

43

Generalized Hookes Law

Stress and strain both have at most six components (only three of
them are independent)

It is therefore convenient to write them as vectors with six elements.

The generalized Hookes

Hooke s law:

The elements of this matrix are called the stiffness matrix that relates
stress to strain at a point in a material (isotropic or orthotropic).
44

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22

Compliance Matrix

The inverse of the stiffness matrix is the compliance matrix, which

relates strain to stress. These two are expressed in terms of Youngs
modulus E, Poisson ratio ( ), and the shear modulus (G). It can be
shown that in isotropic materials, these three constants are related as

45

Stress in Thin Films

In general the thin-film and substrate have different linear thermal

expansion coefficients.

The coefficient of linear thermal expansion of a material is defined

as:

The strain caused by thermal expansion is then simply:

46

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23

Thin Film on Thick (Rigid) Substrate

When a thin film is deposited on a thick substrate at elevated

temperatures, and subsequently cooled and operated at much lower
temperatures the difference between the thermal expansion
coefficients of the film and the substrate creates stress and strain.

The strain of the substrate in one direction along the plane of its
surface can be expressed as:

Where Td is the deposition temperature and Tr is the operating

temperature (which is often room temperature). The film then gets
thi same strain
this
t i in
i the
th plane
l
d to
due
t the
th fact
f t that
th t it is
i attached
tt h d to
t the
th
substrate:

47

Thermal Strain Mismatch

If the film were unattached, however, its strain would be

The difference between the strains the film has with and without
attachment
tt h
t to
t the
th substrate
b t t is
i called
ll d the
th thermal
th
l mismatch
i
t h strain.
t i

The thermal mismatch leads to stress in the film. The stress is

complicated in the edge regions.

In the center of the film, far away from the edges, the film is strained
symmetrically in the plane, and there is nothing to support stress in
the direction perpendicular to the film.
48

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24

Thin Film In-Plane Stress and Strain

In the center, the strain can be relate to the stress in the principal
coordinate system in the following way:

In homogeneous films on cubic or isotropic substrates the two

inplane stresses are equal:

The ratio,
Th
i E/(1-
E/(1 ) is
i called
ll d the
h biaxial
bi i l modulus.
d l The
Th in-plane
i l
plane
l
thermal-mismatch stress is:

49

Determination of Stress in Thin films

It is not possible to measure the thin film stress experimentally when

a film is being deposited.

One of the most definitive means to measure the stress in a thin film
i by
is
b the
h use off the
h M-test method
h d developed
d l d in
i the
h MIT.

In the M-Test method, the pull-in voltage is determined using

empirical methods.

Since the pull-in voltage is a direct consequence of the thin film

stress, using the expressions outlined in

P. M. Osterberg and S. D. Senturia, M-TEST: A Test Chip for MEMS

Material Property Measurement Using Electrostatically Actuated Test
Structures, Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems, Vol. 6, No. 2,
pp. 107-118, Jun. 1997, the stress can be determined.
50

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25

Other Sources of Thin Film Stress

Intrinsic stress

Chemical reactions

Doping (by diffusion or ion implantation)

Lattice mismatch

Rapid deposition ( evaporation or sputtering)

Residual stress :

Thermal mismatch

Intrinsic stress

Stress gradient

Intrinsic stress can sometimes be annealed out almost, completely,

where some amount of thermal mismatch stress is unavoidable when
working with materials with different coefficient of thermal
expansion.
51

Thin Film Stress Gradients

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The stress gradients are often as important as average stress in thin

films.

Stress gradients are caused by variations of film composition caused

by all the different effects that can cause intrinsic stress.

Annealing is very effective in removing a variety of gradients in thin

films.

If stress gradients are not removed, they can lead to curvature of

freestanding thin films.

A freestanding film with a stress gradient will curve towards the side
52
that is in tensile stress.

26

Perpendicular Strain

In the case of thermally induced stress and strain in thin films, the
perpendicular strain has two components:

Strain caused by thermal expansion/contraction

Strain caused by in
in-plane
plane stress

The part caused by the in-plane stress is:

The total perpendicular strain is then:

53

Stress in Thin Films Edge Regions

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In the edge regions, the stress cannot be constant, because at the end
of the film there is nothing to support the in-plane stress.

Instead we get a transition region or edge region in which the inplane stress is transformed into shear stress that is terminated at the
substrate.

The termination of the stresses at the film/substrate interface leads to

a peeling force that can detach the film from the substrate if the film
is in tensile stress. Compressive stress dont lead to this type of
detachment failure.
54

27