Lecture 2 Introduction to MEMS

Welcome to the fascinating and wide world of MEMS

ECE/ME/IE 485 University of Illinois

Physical
Physical Systems
MicroElectroMechanical (MEMS) devices 10 -100 mm wide

vs.
Micro / Nano
10-3 m
1,000,000 nanometers = 1 millimeter (mm)
Microwave

Biological
Life Systems

10-4 m

0.1 mm 100 mm

Dust mite 200 mm Fly ash ~ 10-20 mm

Zone plate x-ray lens Outer ring spacing ~35 nm

Infrared

Courtesy of Office of Basic Energy Sciences Office of Science, U.S. DOE

Pollen grain Red blood cells

Microworld

10-5 m

0.01 mm 10 mm

Human hair ~ 60-120 mm wide Red blood cells (~7-8 mm)

10-6 m
Visible

1,000 nanometers = 1 micrometer (mm)

10-7 m

Nanoworld

Self-assembled, Nature-inspired structure Many 10s of nm Nanotube electrode Carbon buckyball ~1 nm diameter

10-8 m

Ultraviolet

0.1 mm 100 nm

0.01 mm 10 nm

~10 nm diameter ATP synthase

10-9 m
Soft x-ray

1 nanometer (nm)

Carbon nanotube ~1.3 nm diameter Quantum corral of 48 iron atoms on copper surface positioned one at a time with an STM tip Corral diameter 14 nm

10-10 m

0.1 nm

DNA ~2-1/2 nm diameter

Atoms of silicon spacing 0.078 nm

The size scale: Microns

1 mm = 1/1000 mm 1 nm = 1/1000 mm = 1/1,000,000 mm Characteristic length scale of MEMS
1 micrometer to 1 mm Special case: large distributed array.

15 mm
Large array Small nodes

Today
Why are small things important? Where did MEMS come from? What is the future of MEMS?

How big is MEMS?

The size scale: Microns

What is a micrometer?

Lets take a journey through diminishing scales

10 meters

1 meter

0.1 m

0.01 meter, or 10 mm

0.001 meter, or 1 mm

0.1 mm, or 100 mm

10 mm

Human hair

1 mm

0.1 mm or 100 nm

0.01 mm or 10 nm

The realm of molecules, DNA, proteins, and atoms Nanotechnology

Small
Small does not lead to nothing or diminishing importance. Instead, Small leads to
Fundamental building blocks of life Nanotechnology, the underlying theme of science and engineering Microfabrication and micromachining capabilities

Inspiration for MEMS & Nanotechnology: There is Plenty of Room at the Bottom (1959)

Prof. Richard Feynman (1918-1988)

What Has Feynman Predicted?

Feynmans Grand Challenge

Foresight Institute offers a $250,000 prize for the first persons to design and build two nanotechnology devices - a nano-scale robotic arm and a computing device that demonstrates the feasibility of building a nanotechnology computer. Fund raising is continuing in an effort to increase the prize to $1 million.

design, construct, and demonstrate the performance of a robotic arm that initially fits into a cube no larger than 100 nanometers in any dimension, meeting certain performance specifications including means of input. The intent of this prize requirement is a device demonstrating the controlled motions needed to manipulate and assemble individual atoms or molecules into larger structures, with atomic precision; and
design, construct, and demonstrate the performance of a computing device that fits into a cube no larger than 50 nanometers in any dimension. It must be capable of correctly adding any pair of 8-bit binary numbers, discarding overflow. The device must meet specified input and output requirements.

Dentists drill (1 mm)

Artery (1 mm)

Velcro (1 mm)

Muscle Fiber (1 mm)

24

Man made compound eye inspired by fly eyes

Luke Lee, Berkeley

Bioinspiration of Repellant

What is MEMS?
MEMS is a class of device As well as a means of fabrication and manufacturing.

Interdisciplinary
Traditional
Above mm: traditional mechanics mm to mm: microelectronics and electrical engineering Nanometer to mm: chemists

Now
Micro Nano Engineering Chemistry Feeds each other and form a coherent platform of knowledge and innovation.

Where did MEMS come from?

Microelectronics and MEMS Stories from the early days MEMS in the 1990s

A Macro Electromechanical system

A Microelectronics Circuit

Where did MEMS comes from?

Microelectronics

Microelectronics The IT Backbone

1947

Microelectronics and optoelectronics

Infrastructure of todays information technology communication, computation, control Model, design, fabrication technology, and device implementation for microprocessors, data storage, and communications

2011

Fiber for fast internet

1TB Hard Drive

Low lost, photoQuality Ink Jet Cartridge

Personal communication

Digital photography

In turn
Microelectronics fabrication process gives
High density hard drive disks, which in turn leads to
Digital music -> Ipods TiVo -> fundamental transformation of advertising industry Surplus storage ability

Display
Plasma TV, large screen home entertainment

High performance CPU gives

Low cost laptop computers Bioinformatics: deciphering personal human genome Engineering designs and simulation -> airplanes, ships, etc Internet

Low cost / high performance controllers

Automobiles with lighter weight and better fuel efficiency

Integrated analog electronics

Small sized electronics and machines
cell phones

Semiconductor laser: portable CD player

History of MEMS Technology

History of MEMS Technology

History of MEMS Technology

History of MEMS Technology

History of MEMS Technology

History of MEMS Technology

History of MEMS Technology

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3YMjgbhvTA

History of MEMS Technology

History of MEMS Technology

History of MEMS Technology

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems

Accelerometer (Analog Devices)

Digital Light Processors (DLP) (Texas Instruments)

Ink Jet Nozzle (HP)

Miniaturization & Resolution (1 mm-1mm)

Mechanics/ Electronics Integration

Parallel Fabrication

Market Size Examples

Ink jet
HP: $650M/yr Epson and Xerox: $350M/yr

TI DLP
$600M/yr

Accelerometer
ADI: $120M/yr Freescale Semiconductor: $100M/yr

Power Elec.

Dist. MEMS
Env. Monit. Biometrics Security

Inertial Sen.
1st transistor (1947)

Data store Foundry Materials Processes Equipment

bioMEMS and microfluid

PowerGen mRobotics SoftLitho Display

micromotor

NEMS SensorNet

Petersen paper

AeroMEMS
RFMEMS Microfluid BioMEMS

1980

1990

2000

The Silicon Material Family

Single crystalline silicon:
Bulk silicon by melt/crystallization Thin film silicon by epitaxy

Polycrystalline silicon: CVD Amorphous silicon: CVD Silicon nitride Silicon dioxide

Illinois - Strong Laboratory Support and Rich Tradition

Microelectronics Clean room
8000 ft2 clean room facility, top notch in the country Equipment capable of writing 10 nm (0.00000001 m) fine lines

ECE Department clean room (education) Materials research laboratory (MRL)

Materials characterization; microfabrication facility

Beckman Institute
Microscopy suite, computing and simulation

Bardeen and co-workers invented the semiconductor transistor

47

SEM of modern transistor circuitry

3D Features

Outline
Stories from the early days MEMS in the 1990s Stories from the early days
Micro resonant gate transistor (Westinghouse Research, 1967) Micromachined gas chromatograph (Stanford, 1975) Micromachined pressure sensors (Petersen at IBM, 1970s) Micromachined ink jet nozzles (HP and others, 1985) Micro infra-red detector (Honeywell) Miniature chip coolers (Stanford 1978)

Gate

Gate

Drain

Source Regular FET

Drain

Source

Resonant gate FET

1984 180

1987 145

1991 130

1993 90

1995 40

Ink Jet Printer

Drop weight (ng)

200 150 100 50 0 1980 Series1

Hewlett-Packard Photo

1985

1990 Year

1995

2000

ink

ink

1984 10

1987 50

1991 55

1993 100

1995 300

Number of Nozzles per pen

350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 1980 1985 1990 Year 1995 2000 Series1

Ink jet printer

Outline
Stories from the early days MEMS in the 1990s Micro Inertial Sensors (accelerometers and gyro) Data storage RF communications Optical switching and multiplexing for fiber networks Micro fluidics Biomedical applications (micro medical instruments) Displays Energy storage and generation

Micromachined Gyro Chip

Range: +/- 50-1000 o/sec Stability
0.002 o/sec short term 0.2 o/sec long term

Comparison with conventional Large scale gyro

Accelerometers

Motorcycle security sensor

Analog Devices Accelerometer

Full range: 0-5g sensitivity: 200 mV/g resolution: 5 mg at 100 Hz noise floor: 0.5 mg/(Hz)1/2

Also, 10 million sold on 5/15/1998 by Motorola

BT Smart Quill
British Communications

Digital Micro Mirrors

www.ti.com/dlp

TI Photos

ECE/ME/IE 485 Lecture 2

55

Butterfly Wing Inspiration for display

Butterfly and moth derives their vibrant color partially from structural optical interference and diffraction.

56

Digital paper
Reflectivity 80% Contrast ratio: 20:1 Viewing angle: +/- 60o Operating voltage: 5 v No power for holding image 1000 dpi resolution possible Silicon Light Machines Iridigm-Qualcomm iMOD

Iridigm Displays Photos www.iridigm.com SLM Photos 57

Micro Optical Systems

High-speed, low-loss, electrically controlled optical switches
MxN switches 1xN switches add/drop switches

58

Micro Air Vehicle and other DARPA Funded Efforts

59

Micro-machined Neuron Interfaces

Caltech Neuron Well

Utah Implantable Neuron Probe

60 Illinois Neuron Probe Array

It is a wireless world
Wireless infrastructure Bluetooth, Wireless LAN Applications: wireless internet, smart building, smart highway, wireless sensor network, smart toys, A low cost, high performance, small volume, power efficient front end is key to hardware success.

61

MEMS for Information Technology

Mechanical Support
DC actuation Voltage V

E1 C E3 E2

d2 d1
E3
62

Wearable Embedded Systems

Adidas 1 smart shoe

63

Where is MEMS Going?

Research becomes interdisciplinary; field rapidly expanding to including many different areas of expertise. Small, low cost, smart devices finding unprecedented applications
Military: sensor network for unattended battlefield monitoring Biology: cell sorting and manipulation Chemistry: micro chemical systems Medicine: micro surgical tools with smart sensors Homeland defense: distributed environmental sensors with wireless Aeronautics: smart skin for flow sensing Gaming and toys: sensors

MEMS related to Biology and Medicine

Biofluidics
active drug delivery chips cell transport and sorting assay storage and transportation fluidics monitoring
optical (fluorescence) magnetic

Tissue engineering
whole organ engineering for critical organ transplant
blood vessel, kidney, musculoskeletal

Medical applications
blood vessel cleaning total health monitoring micromachined surgical tools cell cytometry biochemical sensing
total blood analysis

micro chemical reactors Personal gene sequencing machines

Cell manipulation
transport across cell wall cell characteristics monitoring neuron prosthesis cell and tissue based sensors

Genetic analysis
DNA amplification DNA transportation and manipulation

Engineered Liver Tissue with Microfluidic Vasculature

66

Vacanti, Harvard Medical School

Engineered Liver Tissue with Microfluidic Vasculature

Vacanti, Harvard Medical School

Whole Blood Analysis at Home iSTAT System

Patient-side testing with disposable cartridge for 11 tests electrochemical sensors

potentiometric (Na, K, Cl, urea, Ca, pH and CO2) amperometric (glucose, creatinine, oxygen) conductometric. Coagulation detection

viscometric endpoint detection

Needle without Pain

Georgia Tech

Implantable MEMS Drug Delivery

Cima & Langer, MIT, 2004

70

Cell Handling and Cell Transport

Transport individual embryos to stations for monitoring and/or manipulation.

Portable Cell Sorters for Medical Diagnosis

Quake, Stanford

Retina Prosthesis

Cochlea Implant for Hearing

Cooperating with Biology RoboRoach

http://www.cae.wisc. edu/~sonicmem/ U. Michigan

Isao Shimoyama,Tokyo University

MEMS for Nanotechnology and NEMS

Prof. Michael Roukes, Caltech

Prof. Joe Lydings Group, UIUC

Applications: on-demand construction of materials; construction of tailor-made DNA and protein sequence.

IBM Millipede Trillion Data Storage

2 Bits/in

77

NanoInk

Conclusion
Early MEMS: Industrial sensors, IC-derived devices MEMS in 1990
Interdisciplinary applications covering many and growing number of areas rapidly
information storage, automotive, communications (wired and wireless), aeronautics, space astronomy, power generation, military weapon smartness and sensing, entertainment (display, virtue reality), toy industry, computer periphery, building/architecture, neurological interfaces, chemistry and physics research.

Successful formula
high performance/price compared with conventional devices new market/starving market (ink jet printer, communications, bio analysis)

MEMS in next ten years

Continue branching into new areas
biology, chemical engineering, nanoengineering

Accelerated speed to commercialization