Lecture 2 2 2021

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Lecture 2 2 2021

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Saeed Abdullah

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ECE 449

Microdevices and Micromachining

Technology

1
MEMS Microfabrication Process
• Successive (selective) material deposition and removal steps
• Photolithography a central element in the fabrication process
– Photostep defines the features to be etched or deposited

Metrology

Doping
Deposition Photo Etching R. Strip

• Frontend: Photolithography
– Wafer cleaning
• Backend:
– Release, dicing, testing, and integration, packaging 2
Photolithography
• Using light to define features in the material to be removed
• Consists of photo exposure and etching steps.
– Projection photolithography
– Contact photolithography

Mask

Mask Aligner
3
Photolithography
• The photomask (mask):
– Rectangular glass plate with chrome on it
– Contains the pattern that will be transferred to the currently processed layer on the
wafer via the process of photolithography
– Needs to be larger than the wafer, in general by one inch.
• E.g., 3 “ diameter wafer → 4” rectangular mask
– Can be negative or positive

4
Positive Photolithography

A
mask

A
wafer

Chrome on mask denotes the presence of photoresist, and thus presence of

structural layer after etch
5
Negative Photolithography

A
mask

A
wafer

Chrome on mask denotes the absence of photoresist, and thus absence of

structural layer after etch
6
Etching
• Removing area selectively patterned by Photoresist
• Important parameters:
– Etch rate: how fast is material etched ( nm/min, A/s etc.)
– Selectivity: speed of etching vs. photoresist or etch-stop material
etch(x times, say 100x)
– Etch-stop: An underlying layer that causes the etch to stop (because
of high etch selectivity)
– Isotropic: Etches equally in all directions

– Anisotropic: Etches preferentially along certain crystalline planes.

• Si vs. SiO2 are etched by mutually exclusive etches.
7
Wet Etching
• Selected Wet Etchants:

• KOH Anisotropic Etch:

– High selectivity between
[100] and [111] planes

8
Dry Etching
• Plasma Assisted Etching:
– Plasma is used to remove material
– Direct mechanical impact: Ion Milling
• Zero or low selectivity
– Reactive species in plasma: Reactive Ion Etching (RIE)
• Different gaseous species etch different materials:

– Anisotropic, since ions impact the surface more than the sidewalls
Remove resist at the end

<Etch rates II> 9

Dry Etching
• Deep Reactive Ion Etching (DRIE)
– Includes an interleaved etch and protection step
• Silicon etch SF6
• Polymer deposition C4F8
– Vertical sidewalls (Bosh process)

• Vapor Etching

<Etch rates II> 10

Pros. and Cons.
• Wet etching:
– Tends to be faster
– KOH
– Photoresist selectivity good
• Dry etching:
– Avoid liquid phase
– RIE more anisotropic
– Lower selectivity
– Slower
– Difficult to etch oxide

11
Etching

12
Specially MEMS: Release Etch
• Final stage of the micromachining process (usually surface)
• Removal of interlayer sacrificial material
– Usually oxide in a polysilicon process
• Creates mechanically suspended structures
• Can be dry or wet
– HF plasma vs. wet HF
• Isotropic

13
14
Etch Release Holes
• During release etch we are primarily concerned about rate of undercut
• Etch release holes are placed to ensure complete release of large flat
structures