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MEMS Testing
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EE141 System-on-Chip Test Architectures
Focus on
Testing considerations for MEMS, test methods and instrumentation for MEMS. Overview of testing approaches for RF MEMS, Optical MEMS, Fluidic MEMS, Accelerometers, Gyroscopes, and Microphones. Testing Digital Microfluidic Biochips, DFT and BIST for MEMS.
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Topics
Introduction MEMS Testing Considerations Test Methods and Instrumentation for MEMS
Electrical, Optical, and Mechanical Test Methods Material Property Measurements, Failure Mode and Analysis, and Environmental Testing
Concluding Remarks
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13.1 Introduction
MEMS devices are miniature electromechanical sensors and actuators fabricated using VLSI processing techniques. Typical sizes for MEMS devices range from nanometers to millimeters (100 nm to 1000 m). MEMS enhances realization of system-on-chip (SOC) by integration of mixed domain technologies such as electrical, optical, mechanical, thermal, and fluidics. Typical examples for commercial MEMS devices include Analog Devices ADXL series accelerometers, FreeScale Semiconductors pressure sensors and accelerometers, Texas Instruments digital light processing (DLP) displays, and Knowles Electronics SiSonic MEMS microphone. Microfluidics-based biochips, also referred to as lab-on-a-chip, are replacing cumbersome and expensive laboratory equipment for applications such as high-throughput sequencing, parallel immunoassays, protein crystallization, blood chemistry for clinical diagnostics, and environmental toxicity monitoring. To ensure the testability and reliability of these MEMS-based SOCs, MEMS devices need to be thoroughly tested, particularly when used for safety-critical applications such as in the automotive and healthcare industry. Therefore, there is a pressing need for design for testability (DFT) and built-in self-test (BIST) of MEMS
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Source: L. Almeida, R. Ramadoss, R. Jackson, K. Ishikawa, and Q. Yu, Study of Electrical Contact Resistance of Multi-Contact MEMS relay fabricated using MetalMUMPs process, J. Micromechanics and Microengineering, 16(6), pp. 11891194, July 2006.
Amplitude
Source: MEMS Geometry and vibrations, Laser Measurement Systems Application Note VIB-M-05, Polytec GmbH, www.polytec.com, 2007.
Phase
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Cantilever Beam
Clamped-Clamped Beam
Guckel Ring
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x2(t)
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Transmissibility
T(s) is defined as:
n
T ( s) = X 2 ( s) Q = X 1 ( s ) s 2 + n s + 2 n Q
2 s + n
Transmissibility:
( T ( j ) =
4 ) 2 + n
2 (n 2 ) 2 + (
n
Q
)2
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Transmissibility Plot
For Q 5, the resonant peak of |T(j)| occurs at approximately = n For Q 5, the magnitude of |T(j)| at = n is approximately equal to Q
Transmissibility Vs. Normailzed Frequency
70
50
30 Magnitude, dB
10
-10
10
-30
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Electromechanical Shaker
Can subject an attached device to sinusoidal motion Adjustable amplitude Adjustable bandwidth Useful in measuring |T(j)| of a MEMS device
Photograph of an LDS model V408 electromechanical shaker with an attached accelerometer (courtesy Auburn University).
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Rate Table
A machine used to rotate attached devices Provides electrical feedthroughs for functional testing Useful for angular rate testing Useful for variable acceleration testing using centripetal force:
a c = r 2
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Motor
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Humidity Testing
Evaluation of a device as a function of humidity Easiest type of chemical testing to perform Usually performed in a controlled humidity chamber Controlled humidity level Controlled temperature Humidity and temperature cycling is possible Functional testing of MEMS devices during humidity testing is possible
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Pressure Testing
Evaluation of a device as a function of pressure Pressures above or below ambient pressure may be of interest For example: the testing of MEMS pressure sensors A bell jar system is useful for pressures below ambient The price for a suitable pump increases as the pressure decreases
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Source: R. Puers, R. Mertens, frequency EE141 W. M. van Spengen, and Microengineering, and I. De Wolf, A lowMay 2003. electrical test set-up for the reliability assessment of capacitive RF MEMS switches, J. Micromechanics 13(5), pp. 604612,
Source: J. R. Clark, W.-T. Hsu, and C. T.-C. Nguyen, Measurement techniques for capacitively-transduced VHF-to-UHF micromechanical resonators, in Proc. Int. Conf. on Solid-State Sensors & Actuators, pp. 11181121, June 2001. 26
a) Piston Micromirrors
Source: A. Tuantranont, L.-A. Liew, V. M. Bright, J. Zhang, W. Zhang, and Y. C. Lee, Bulk-etched surface micromachined and flip-chip integrated micromirror array for infrared applications in Proc. IEEE/LEOS Int. Conf. on Optical MEMS, pp. 7172, August 2000. 27
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Source: J. N. Palasagaram and R. Ramadoss, MEMS capacitive pressure sensor fabricated using printed circuit processing techniques, IEEE Sensors J., 6(6), pp. 13741375, December 2006.
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Front and backside photographs of a HMX2000 MEMS humidity sensor [Dean 2005]
Characterize sensor performance prior to cavity evaluation Also evaluate as a function of temperature
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Source: M. Pedersen, W. Olthuis, and P. Bergveld, High-performance condenser microphone with fully integrated CMOS amplifier and DC-DC voltage converter, J. Microelectromechanical Systems, 7(4), pp. 387394, December 1998.
Source: P. V. Loeppert and S. B. Lee, SiSonic: the first commercialized MEMS microphone, in Digest of Papers, Solid-State Sensors, Actuators, and Microsystems Workshop, pp. 2730, June 2006.
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Advantages
Higher throughput Shrink Minimal human intervention Smaller sample/reagent consumption Higher sensitivity Lab-on-a-chip Increased productivity
Microfluidic Biochip
20nl sample
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Applications of Biochips
Clinical diagnostics, e.g., healthcare for premature infants, point-of-care diagnosis of diseases Bio-smoke alarm: environmental monitoring Massive parallel DNA analysis, automated drug discovery, protein crystallization Robust test techniques needed
Outcome of biochemical results must be reliable Testing must be low-cost: disposable devices ($1/chip) 41
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Robotics
Microfluidics
Technology Overview
Digital microfluidic biochips
Manipulation of liquids as discrete droplets
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No Potential
Applied Potential
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Microfluidics
Continuous-flow biochips: Permanently etched microchannels, micropumps and microvalves Digital microfluidic biochips: Manipulation of liquids as discrete droplets
(Duke University) 2002
(University of Michigan) 1998 Printed circuit board lab-on-a-chip inexpensive and readily manufacturable
EE141 System-on-Chip Test Architectures
Advantages
No bulky liquid pumps are required
Electrowetting uses microwatts of power Can be easily battery powered Standard low-cost fabrication methods can be used
Continuous-flow systems use expensive lithographic techniques to create channels Digital microfluidic chips are possible using solely PCB processes
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Capabilities
Digital microfluidics-based biochips
TRANSPORT TRANSPORT DISPENSING DISPENSING MIXERS MIXERS REACTORS REACTORS DETECTION DETECTION
INTEGRATE
Basic microfluidic functions (transport, splitting, merging, and mixing) have already been demonstrated on a 2-D array Digital microfluidics-based biochip is a highly reconfigurable system
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More on Applications
Droplet-based microfluidic biochip
Environmental and other applications Burns, Science 2002 Medical diagnostics and therapeutics Clinical chemistry Immunoassays Nucleic acid tests
Proteomics
Chip Assembly
Top plate is either glued or fixed in place by pressure Contacts are made either through the top or bottom Droplets are either dispensed by hand or formed from on-chip reservoirs
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Flash Plating
(Copper)
Hydrophobic Layer
(Teflon AF)
Dielectric
(LPI Soldermask)
PCB
PCB Material Mitsui BN300 64 mil Top Metal Layer (Electrodes) Cu 15m Bottom Metal Layer (Contacts) Cu 15m Dielectric LPI Soldermask 25 m Via Hole Filling Non-conductive Epoxy Hydrophobic Layer Teflon AF 0.05 to 1.0 m Gasket (spacer) Dry Film Soldermask (Vacrel 8140) 4 mils (~95m after processing)
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Lactate
U
C
Controls
S
L G
M detection 3 phase bus M
Glucose
Calibrants
Sample
M B
Sample
Waste
U
C
Control/ Calibrant
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Fault Classification
Catastrophic faults
Causes: dielectric breakdown, degradation of the insulator, etc.
Parametric faults
Causes: geometrical parameter deviation, change in viscosity of droplet and filler medium, etc.
Single-electrode faults
Electrode open
Two-electrodes faults
Short between the adjacent electrodes
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Pressure gradient Droplet transportation (net static without activation pressure in some voltage direction)
Coating failure
Dielectric islands Fragmentation of (islands of droplets and their Teflon coating) motion is prevented
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Minimally invasive Easy to implement (alleviate the need for external devices) Fault effect should be unambiguous Electrically control and track test stimuli droplets
Output
1N5231 5.1V
5K 1N914
Gnd
If there is a droplet, output=1; otherwise, output=0 Fault-free : there is a droplet between sink electrodes Faulty: there is no droplet.
Chipunder-test
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Examples of Defects
Degradation of electrode
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Defect-Oriented Experiment
Understand the impact of certain defects on droplet flow, e.g., for short-circuit between two electrodes Experimental Setup
To evaluate the effect of an electrode short on microfluidic behavior
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Reserved cells
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Pseudo sinks
EE141 System-on-Chip Test Architectures
Sink
Test Droplets
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where C1(C2): left (right) differential capacitance, nf: total number of differential capacitance groups, 0: dielectric constant of air, Lf: length of movable finger, : non-overlapped length at the root of each movable finger, h: device thickness.
EE141 System-on-Chip Test Architectures
Sensing the differential capacitance The schematic diagram of change, we know the displacement differential capacitance (one finger group) x, hence the acceleration a.
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TIMA Approach
Instead of using IFA, fabrication process of MEMS is analyzed to determine realistic defects or failure mechanisms. Failure mechanisms are divided into those occurred in CMOS process, and those occurred in micromachining process. Defects are classified into gauge (e.g., sending circuit) faults and microstructure faults. Each class is further divided into catastrophic faults and parametric faults. Gauge faults: shorts, opens, or changes in width, length and metal resistivity. Microstructure faults: break-around-gauge, stiction, nonreleased microstructure, asymmetrical microstructure, or change of Youngs modulus.
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0 S (Vd Vnom ) 2
2d 2
Displacement of mass x=Fd /k Measure the resulted differential capacitance change and compare with expected good device value
EE141 System-on-Chip Test Architectures
Measure the voltage level VMs in movable mass and compare with expected good device value.
EE141 System-on-Chip Test Architectures
Concluding Remarks
A majority of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices are inherently mechanical in nature and therefore require some special considerations during various manufacturing stages and testing. This chapter discussed some of the important handling considerations during dicing, packaging, and testing. A wide variety of test methods, such as electrical, optical, mechanical, and environmental, for characterization of various MEMS devices. This chapter reviewed the instrumentation, typical setup, and important characteristics for testing a wide variety of MEMS devices, including accelerometers, gyroscopes, humidity sensors, RF MEMS, optical MEMS, pressure sensors, and microphones Microfluidics-based biochips have a great potential for replacing cumbersome and expensive laboratory equipment. Test techniques for digital microfluidic chips have been discussed. MEMS DFT/BIST techniques and examples have been discussed. It should be noted that the diversity of MEMS devices and their principles remain a challenge in developing universal DFT and BIST solutions.
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