The HARPSS process for fabrication of nano-precision silicon electromechanical resonators

Author

Yoel No, Seong ; Ayazi, Farrokh

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta, GA, USA

fYear

2001

fDate

2001

Firstpage

489

Lastpage

494

Abstract

In this paper, radio frequency (RF) ultra-stiff electromechanical resonators are introduced and compared with their ultra-light counterparts. RF ultra-stiff resonators with dimensions in the low end of the micrometer scale can yield UHF frequencies (0.33 GHz) by operating at their higher order flexural modes. However, electrostatic actuation and capacitive sensing of ultra-stiff resonators will require nanoscale airgaps. The HARPSS (high aspect-ratio combined poly and single crystal silicon MEMS technology) fabrication process presented in this paper is an all-silicon process that is capable of producing capacitive silicon resonators (poly and single-crystalline) with lateral gap spacing as small as 10 nm between the resonating structure and the silicon electrodes, without the need for nano-lithography

Keywords

UHF devices; capacitive sensors; electrostatic actuators; elemental semiconductors; micromachining; micromechanical resonators; microsensors; nanotechnology; silicon; 0.3 to 3 GHz; 10 nm; HARPSS fabrication process; HARPSS process; RF ultra-stiff electromechanical resonators; Si; UHF frequencies; all-silicon process; capacitive sensing; capacitive silicon resonators; electrostatic actuation; flexural mode operation; high aspect-ratio combined poly/single crystal silicon MEMS technology; lateral gap spacing; nano-lithography; nano-precision silicon electromechanical resonators; nanoscale airgaps; polysilicon resonators; resonating structure; silicon electrodes; single-crystalline silicon resonators; ultra-stiff resonators; Band pass filters; Fabrication; Micromechanical devices; Optical filters; Optical resonators; Radio frequency; Resonance; Resonant frequency; Resonator filters; Silicon;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Nanotechnology, 2001. IEEE-NANO 2001. Proceedings of the 2001 1st IEEE Conference on

Conference_Location

Maui, HI

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7215-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/NANO.2001.966472

Filename

966472