High-level CAD melds micromachined devices with foundries

The use of the Magic technology file to build transducer devices in the form of micro-heaters for use as IR pixels in a thermal display is described. Magic is a high-level computer-aided design (CAD) software system. The design methodology incorporated into the current MOSIS SCMOS technology file for Magic to implement the fabrication of silicon micromachined device structures is presented. This technology file uses only the layers supplied by a commercial standard CMOS process. The main advantages of this technique is that no major equipment is needed and the post-processing is reduced to a single, maskless etch step. The main disadvantage is that custom layers can not be incorporated into the design; therefore, the sensors/transducers can only be composed of polysilicon and/or aluminum sandwiched with thermal oxide and CVD oxide.<>