MECH. ENG.

4E03
Introduction to MEMS

Lecture 2
Scaling and Microfabrication
Scaling
In Fantastic Voyage (1966), a submarine and its crew are miniaturized to save the life of
a dying man from the inside.
 On Being Small
Problems with proportional
miniaturization:
e.g.: miniature book can not open
(intermolecular force)

Why is scaling important for MEMS?

MEMS are often ~1000 times smaller than
macro counterparts.

We dont have good intuition of microscale

physics
What can we do?
Always valid: science (classical physics, continuum mechanics)
When the objects are small
Scale analysis: can reveal how things behave in microscopic world
w/o full scale mathematical analysis.
Learn from nature
 Scaling
Dependence on length scale (s):
Length [s1]
Surface area [s2]
Volume [s3]

Example:

Ants lift about 40 50 times their weight while they are

powerless in a drop of water
Land-based life contends with gravity at large scale,
drying out at small scale. 4m
Water-based life increases range of sizes by evading
gravity and drying out.

Same forces act in all scales but their magnitudes 20 m

and importance vary
 Isometric Scaling

Surface to volume ratio:

S 6lw 6
s 1
V lwh h

l w h 1m
l w h 1nm
l w h 1mm

S S
106 m 1 109 m 1
S V V
103 m 1
V Surface is more significant in the micro and nano scale
 Isometric Scaling
Mass and Weight:
Mass : M V lwh s 3
Weight : W Vg glwh s 3

l w h 1m l w h 1nm

l w h 1mm

W 1mg W 10 mg 9
W 1018 mg

Weight and gravity are insignificant in the micro and nano scale
 Scaling of Mechanical Systems
Mechanical Stiffness of a Cantilever Beam:
Scales down linearly with dimensions

Micromechanical systems seem more stiff than

macromechanical systems
Axial Stiffness = k = AE / L ~ [s1]
Where E = youngs modulus
Force needed to penetrate = Pcrit*A~ [s2]

Example: Microelectrodes for neural recording.

Very stiff and sufficient enough to penetrate the
brain tissue as well as the skin
Similar electrodes are designed for drug
delivery through the skin
 Scaling Mechanical Systems
Bending Stiffness of cantilever
Ewt 3
k
4 L3

1 k
f spring
2 m
f spring s 1

micro and nano scale systems vibrate at high frequencies

1 2 1 2
K .E mv Spring .E
2 P.E mgh 2
kx
K .E s 3 when v is const P.E s 3 when h is const Spring .E s 2 when k is const
K .E s 5 when v l, w, h P.E s 4 when h l, w, h Spring .E s 4 when k l, w, h
Energy required to actuate micro and nano scale systems is small
 Scaling Mechanical Systems
Micromirror
Torque to turn mirror I yy
1
t
I yy mx 2
12
1
I yy yx t
3

y 12
Reducing dimension by an order of magnitude

I
3
1 y x t I yy original
yy 10 105
reduced
12 10 10
x

Torque required to turn mirror reduced by

5 orders of magnitude
 Mechanical Scaling

Negative Consequence of Rapidly Scaled Mass

Inertial sensor performance is proportional to the mass
of the proof mass

MEMS inertial sensors must be able to resolve

smaller deflections than macroscopic inertial
sensors

Fatigue properties for ultra-thin films -

radically different

Mechanical properties are difficult to

measure and control.

Residual stresses and stress

gradients can dominate for smaller Residual stress causes bending of the
scales, and are also very difficult to mechanical structures.

control.
 Surface Forces and Friction
Striction (Friction +
Stiction), arises
from
Capillary forces~ [s1]
Adhesive surface forces
such as van der Waals,
hydrogen bonding,
electrostatic ~ [s2]
Macroscale contact - few
rough protrusions. Erosion of the parts due to
Microscale - smooth abrasion
Science News, 158, 56, 2000
surfaces large contact Friction measurements from Sandia micro-engine
Striction, the bane of micromotors
Solutions:
Side-drive motors use electrostatic force between edges of poly rotor and
stator, limited by friction to 500 rpm (Fan et al.)
Improvements enabled 15000 rpm, operation for a week. (Mehregany.)
Use coatings such as Tungsten to reduce wear
 Surface Forces and Friction

Ffriction mg gL3 (scales favorably )

H 2
Vander Waals force 3
L
For parallel plates 6x
H (Hamker const) 10-19 J in air and 10-20 J in water
Fstiction 5.3 106 L2 N/m 2
Fgr gL3
For two plates L L 0.1L
Equating Fgr Fstiction
Lcr 0.43mm
 Scaling of Material Properties
Use of different construction techniques and materials leads to
different properties for what is otherwise the same material

assume properties of thin-film materials are somewhat different

than bulk properties

elastic modulus, resistivity, magnetization,

Increased Reliability -
fewer defects per
device
single-crystal materials
(lower defect density)

106 defects/cm3 1
defect for every 106
m3
 Microscale Heat Transfer
Thermal design of micromechanical structures needs to account for the
changes of the thermal property due to size effects.

The mean-free path of thermal energy carrier called phonon becomes

comparable to the structural size.

Thermal isolation structures

for measurements

2D nanostructure

1D nanostructure
Si nanowire
D. Li et al. Applied physics letters, 83, 2934,2003
 Scaling Thermal Systems
Miniaturizing thermal systems In the case of a microstructure
Increase surface- to- volume dissipating heat
ratios Heat conductance Specific heat capacity
heat is conducted out more
quickly dT
With micromachining it is possible Q AT c pV
to make dt
Excellent thermally isolated
A
structures ( )t
c pV
Extreme miniaturization leads to
quantum mechanical effects T f To e
Phonon transport Thermal time constant:

c pV
l
1

A
Fast heat transfer in microworld - good for actuators, heat sinks.
 Microheaters

J. Heat Transfer 126, 259-271, 2004

 Thermodynamics in MEMS
Effect of temperature on sensitivity
The molecules in any material at a temperature above absolute zero
are constantly vibrating.
Thermodynamic theory states that mean square average
displacement is given by
1 1
k x k BT
2

2 2

k BT
x Accelerometer example:
k 0 = 25 kHz, m = 0.1 gm, k = 2N/m

Thermal noise can contribute a very

large error to this micro
accelerometer.

Use force feedback to stiffen the

springs and reduce noise
 Matrix Notation for Scaling

Matrix shows dependence on length scale [s] for

different cases in simple format, Trimmer 1989.
 Scaling in Trimmers notation

Scaling of forces
[s1] ~ surface
tension,electrostatic I
[s2] ~ pressure, muscle,
electrostatic II, magnetic I
[s3] ~ gravitational,
magnetic II
[s4] ~ magnetic III Berkeley
 Power

s1 s1 s 1.5 s 0 .5 s 2.5
2 1 1 2 1
P
Fx
s s s s P s
s 3 s1 s 0.5 P 3.5 0 .5
t s V s
4 1 0 5 2
s s s
s s

Power generated
Force laws with scaling higher than s2,
power generated per volume degrades as
scale decreases

MIT
 Electrostatic Forces
In a parallel plate capacitor wl
C V Ed
d
CV 2
w U
2
d
wldE 2
U
2
l
V U
F
x
1
F
2 x
CV 2

 Electrostatic Forces

1
F
2 x
CV
2

1
F o wldE 2
2 x
F [ s ]E ;
2 2
E V /d
Berkeley
0. 5
Eb [ s ] or [s ] 0

Two regimes for breakdown

As gap spacing becomes smaller than F [ s1 ] or [s2 ]
mean free path there are less molecules
to cause breakdown
Breakdown field (macro) is 3MV/m in air
Eb ~ 108 V/m typical for gaps < 5m Same effect in macro-scale in
vacuum - () > gap, ionizing event probability is reduced.
 Magnetic Forces
Constant Current Density J=[s0]
Ia
I J dA JA s 2
d
Ib
Applying Ampere and Biot-Savart Laws

o
I a I b ... s 4
l l
F
2 d
Const heat flow
s 1 s 2 through the surface
of the wire: J=[s-0.5]
J magnetic 0.5 Fmagnetic 3
s s
0 4 Const temperature
s s rise of the wire
 Comparison
Electrostatics
+ Generally better scaling at microscale s1
+ Simple actuation with pair of electrodes 2
s
separated by insulator Felectrostatic
+ Voltage switching easier than current switching
+ Energy loss through Joule heating is lower
+ High-force short-range motion concatenated, as
in stepper motor

Magnetics
+ Absolute forces, displacements larger
+ Can operate in harsh environments s 2
Magnetic materials not standard Fmagnetic 3
3D magnets harder to microfabricate using s
planar IC processes
4
High currents, power dissipation s
 Design Solution

Electrostatic force proportional to the number of fingers

Large deflections at resonant frequency

r o wV 2
Fx
2t
r olV 2
Fy
2t
 Scaling of Fluidic Systems

Flow through a capillary

(Hagen-Poiseuille law):
8LQ 8Lvave
P
r 4
r 2

r
L
 Scaling of Fluidic Systems
Reynolds number:
Re = inertial / viscous forces

Re < 2300 - laminar (Stokes) flow

regime
slow fluid flow, no inertial effects

Re > 4000 - turbulent flow regime

Re ~ [s2] for const. p

Re << 2100
laminar flow in microfluidics
slow time constants, heavy damping

Examples of Low Reynolds Number

Bacteria (size ~ 1m; speed ~ 10 m/s)
Glaciers( speed ~ 1m/yr; viscosity: large)
Honey (viscosity ~ 3000 cP)
 Scaling of Fluidic Systems

Pressure scaling (constant U, x):

Large pressures (volume-driving) needed to drive
microflows
Surface-driving forces more useful:
surface-traction (e.g. SAW)
surface-tension flow (capillary effects)
piezoelectric
electro-osmotic 8LQ 8Lvave
electrohydrodynamic P
r 4
r 2
 Dimensionless Numbers
Convective transport vl
Peclet Number
Diffusive transport D
Inertial force vl
Reynolds Number
Viscous force
Gravitational force gr 2
Bond Number
Surface tension force
Momentum Diffusivity

D
Schmidt Number
Molecular mass diffusivity

Weber Number
Inertial force lv 2
Surface tension force

Microfluidic mixing
 Diffusion in fluids
Very short diffusion
times
Laminar flow limits benefits for
fluid mixing.
Highly predictible diffusion has
enabled a new class of
microfluidic diffusion mixers
Microfluidic patterning using laminar flow

Device Operation

Microarray printing (1,384

spots spaced 80 um apart)

Spatial labeling of
cells

Selective
removal of cells

Microfluidic probe tip Juncker et al. Nature Materials 4, 622 - 628 (2005)
 Scaling Chemical & Biological Systems

Scaling of analytical
chemical systems is
limited

For a fixed concentration

of target molecules, total
number of target
molecules in sample is
reduced as the sample is
miniaturized
Detector with greater
sensitivity needed with a
cut-off at detecting a single
molecule

Berkeley
 Surface Tension
Surface tension (water ~ 72
mN/m)
20 m hydrophilic channel filled with
water, P across meniscus is 14.4 kPa

Surface tension or capillary

forces scale with perimeter of
wetted area ~ [s1] (2r ) P(r ) 2

Bug (10 mg) needs 1 mm of foot edge to

walk on water 1 1
Human (60 kg) would need feet with P
R1 R2
8000 m perimeter

Implications for MEMS

F PA [ s 1 ][ s 2 ]
Release and in-use stiction are major
challenges
F [s ]
1
 Surface Tension
Use surface tension of liquid polymer and molten metal
droplets to self-assemble hinged MEMS into desired
positions.
water = 72 mN/m, polystyrene = 39 mN/m at 25C
Sn-Bi solder = 319 mN/m at 188C,
Au = 1070 mN/m at 1200C,
sodium silicate glass = 286 mN/m at 1000C
Surface Tension Effects on Fluid Transport

RB Fair group Duke University

CJ Kim group UCLA., MEMS 2001

 Surface Tension Control for Displays

Video-speed electronic paper based on electrowetting

Robert A. Hayes and B. J. Feenstra
Nature 425, 383-385(25 September 2003)
 Miniaturization Advantages

1. Reduced Cost per Device Batch Fabrication

2. Sensor and Actuator Performance

3. Improved spatial resolution

4. Electrostatic force becomes significant

5. Integration with circuits can reduce noise and improve performance

and reduce cost

6. Approaches the size of individual cells - strongly appropriate for

biomedical applications

7. Increased Reliability - fewer defects per device

106 defects/cm3 1 defect for every 106 m3
 Challenges to Miniaturization

Requires expensive tools

Harder to interface with the macroscopic world
Fragility
Interconnect issues
Smaller device requires higher sensitivity to sense smaller
input
Chemical sensors, accelerometers, gyros
e.g. displacement sensors scale with [s1]
Actuators
Actuators only for low-force applications(N to mN)
Surface or volume scaling[s2], [s3]
May need to take into account
Molecular forces (i.e., Brownian motion)
Quantum mechanical effects (i.e., phonons)
Microfabrication
 Some Detailed References
UC Berkeley processing class notes
http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~ee143/sp08/

MIT Open Courseware, Micro/Nano processing technology - class notes

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Electrical-Engineering-and-Computer-
Science/6-152JFall-2005/CourseHome/index.htm

Others
http://www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/amat/elmat_en/ (materials) (U of Kiel)
http://jas.eng.buffalo.edu/ (nice animations of semiconductor dev. Fab)

R.C. Jaeger "Introduction To Microelectronics Fabrication , 2nd Edition,

Prentice-Hall, ISBN: 0201444941 (introduction)

S. Wolf, Silicon Processing for the VLSI Era, series, Vols I, II, and III, (IV)
Lattice Press, ISBN: 0961672161,0961672145, 0961672137 (great levels
of detail Si processing bible)
Silicon Planar Processing --- The
Foundation of Microfabrication

All chips are

built
On planar
substrate
wafer

~100-300 mm
diameter

All chips
fabricated
simultaneously.
This is called
Batch
Processing
Planar Process Yields 3D Patterned Layered
Structure

S. Wolf, Silicon Processing

for the VLSI ERA
 Early Transistors (Txs) vs Today Nano-Txs
Moores law requires a continuous shrinkage of Txs size
Early IC, Circa 1961 ~ 5 Tx, 1mm2
Tx channel length ~30 nm

45 yrs

Many generations of wafer fabs

Lots of good infrastructure do not need to invent your own equipment
Lots of inexpensive old generation equipment that is readily available

Many fabrication tricks learned over ~40 yrs

Processing techniques and control are sophisticated
 Some History --- Silicon Process Technology
Since 1980s there has been tremendous growth of the electronic chip industry
Moores law number of Txs in chip doubles every two years

The industry requires continuous increase in chip complexity and density to

keep selling its (new) products

Tremendous technological improvements have been realized in terms of

miniaturization and fabrication complexity
 Such Sophistication on Processing Equipment
Leads to Skyrocketing Costs

Estimated cost of Fab vs Feature Size

These costs can be coped with if larger substrate sizes are used
leading to more chips/wafer
 Costs of Ever More Expensive Production
Equipment Requires Use of Larger Substrates
Silicon Planar Processing
Silicon chips are built on a planar
substrate (wafer) on a layered
manner

Chips are constructed on a

sequential manner through a
combination of a finite set of
operators or steps (combination is
known as process flow)

Additive steps add layers

Subtractive steps remove layers
Pattern Transfer removal or
adding happens on selected areas

Resulting device has multi-layer

3D structure
 Silicon wafer fabrication
Crystal puller
and rotation
mechanism Crystal seed

Single crystal Molten

silicon polysilicon
Japanese J. Appl.
Phys. (38), pp. 4619,
Quartz Heat shield 1999
crucible
Carbon heating
element Water jacket

www.egg.or.jp/MSIL/english/index-e.html
 Silicon wafer fabrication
Zone Refining
Polycrystalline Chuck Gas inlet (inert)
rod (silicon)
Molten zone
RF Traveling
Traveling RF coil
RF coil
Seed
Chuck
crystal
Inert gas out

Single crystal silicon

In the float zone process, dopants and other impurities are

rejected by the regrowing silicon crystal. Impurities tend to stay
in the liquid and refining can be accomplished, especially with
multiple passes.
 Silicon wafer fabrication
Wafer Dicing
Preparing crystal ingot for grinding

Diameter
grind

Flat grind
 Silicon wafer fabrication
Wafer Polishing Double side polishing

Upper polishing pad

Wafer

Slurry
www.egg.or.jp/MSIL/english/index-e.html Lower polishing pad
 Silicon data
Symbol Si
State (std. cond.) solid
Atomic Weight 28.086
Boiling point, p.b.,C 2,878*
Melting point, m.p.,C 1,412 2
Critical Temperature, Tc, C 4.886*
Critical pressure, Pc, atm 530*
Critical volume, VC, Cm,/gx mol 232.6
Critical density, DC g/cm 0.1207*
Vapor pressure, mm Hg 2.8x10-4 (at m.p.)
Heat of vaporization, cal/g 3,812 (at m.p.)
Heat of sublimation, cal/g 4,075 (at m.p.)
Heat of fusion, cal/g 264* (at m.p.)
Liquid heat capacity, cal/g molC 6.755 (at m.p.)
Solid heat capacity, cal/g x molC 4.78 (at 25C)
Solid heat capacity, JKg/m cC 703
Liquid density, g/cm 2.533 (at m.p.)
Solid density, g/cm 2.329 (at 25C)
Percent expansion on freezing 10 % (at m.p.)
Surface tension, dynes/cm 736 (at m.p.)
Liquid viscosity, centipoise .88 (at m.p.)
Liquid thermal conductivity, cal/sec x cm x C 1.025x10-3(at m.p.)
Solid thermal conductivity, cal/sec x cm x C 0.353 (at at 25C)
Solid thermal conductivity, W/m x C 163
Hardness, Knoop, Kg/mm 1150
Hardness, mohs 7
Compressibility coefficient, cm/dyne 1.0 (10-12)
Bulk modulus, dyne/cm: 9.8 (1011)
Bulk modulus, GPa: 102 (steel = 160 GPa)
Youngs, modulus, dyne/cm: 1.3 (1012)
Youngs, modulus GPa: 131 ( steel = 210 GPa)
Coefficient of thermal expansion, per C 2.6x10-6
Specific heat, cal/gC: 0.18
Atomic density atoms cm: 4.96 (1022)
Refractive index, 4 : 3.4255
dn/dT,C 1.6: (10-4)
% Transmission uncoated, 4 : 53.8
Transmission range, :1.2-7 and 45-100+
Dielectric constant: 11.8
Elastic constants, C11, dyne/cm: 1.656 (1012)
Elastic constants, C12, dyne/cm: 0.639 (1012)
Elastic constants, C44, dyne/cm: 0.795 (1012)
Rupture modulus, bending Kg/cm: 700-3.500
Breaking strength, compression Kg/cm: 4,900-5,600
Breaking strength, compression, MPa: 120
Ultimate Yield tensile strength, Mpa: 7000 (steel 760)
Poisson Ratio: 0.28
Reference:Silicon Buyers Guide
 Silicon data
Dopant Level Vs. Resistivity For Selected Dopants
Resistivity (ohm
Material
cm)
Silver 1.59x10-6
Copper 1.68x10-6
Aluminum 2.65x10-6
Platinum 10.6x10-6
Carbon
3-60x10-3
(graphite)
Intrinsic Silicon 30-240x106
Glass 1-10000x1011
Quartz 7.5x1019
(fused)
Hard rubber 1-100x1015

Atomic density atoms in silicon

crystal = 4.96 (1022)/ cm
 Crystals
Atomic arrangement materials
Amorphous Single crystalline Poly crystalline

Electron Microscopy (TEM) of SiO2 on Si

Cubic Crystals

type: <100>
Equivalent directions: [1,0,0],[0,1,0],[0,0,1]
type: <110>
Equivalent directions: [1,1,0], [0,1,1], [1,0,1],
[-1,-1,0], [0,-1,-1], [-1,0,-1], [-1,1,0], [0,-1,1],
[-1,0,1], [1,-1,0], [0,1,-1], [1,0,-1]
type: <111>
Equivalent directions: [1,1,1], [-1,1,1], [1,-1,1],
[1,1,-1]
 Crystal Planes
Crystal planes
Z Z Z

Y Y Y

X X X
(100) (110) (111)

How to determine crystal a plane: For Cubic Crystals: angle

1. Determine intercepts of the plane on each axis between planes (h1,k1,l1) and
( e.g.) 1, 1, (h2,k2,l2) is given by

2. Take reciprocals of these numbers 1, 1, 0

3. Reduce to smallest integers (110)
 Silicon Lattice

Basic FCC Cell Merged FCC Cells

Silicon has the basic diamond

crystal structure two merged
FCC cells offset by a/4 in x, y
and z. Omitting atoms
Bonding of Atoms
outside cell
 Silicon wafers
n-type (100) p-type (100)

Miller indices indicated

by ground edges called
135o
90o flats.

n-type (111) p-type (111)

45o

Primary flat Longest length; has a specific crystal orientation relative to

the wafer surface.
Secondary flat Indicates the crystal orientation and doping of the wafer. The
location of this flat varies.
Silicon Crystallographic Orientation