Planar MEMS RF capacitor integration

Author

Stamper, A.K. ; Jahnes, C.V. ; Dupuis, S.R. ; Gupta, A. ; He, Z.-X. ; Herrin, R.T. ; Luce, S.E. ; Maling, J. ; Miga, D.R. ; Murphy, W.J. ; White, E.J. ; Cunningham, S.J. ; DeReus, D.R. ; Vitomirov, I. ; Morris, A.S.

Author_Institution

IBM, Essex Junction, VT, USA

fYear

2011

fDate

5-9 June 2011

Firstpage

1803

Lastpage

1806

Abstract

MEMS capacitor switches have been integrated with high voltage CMOS ICs. The MEMS were formed with the final three AlCu wiring levels in SiO₂ using a planar sacrificial silicon cavity process. The MEMS cavities were hermetically sealed at less than atmospheric pressure at wafer level. After Pb-free solder bumping, the MEMS chips are packaged in organic laminate packages. The capacitor portion of the MEMS beam has a capacitance density of ~0.12fF/μm² and the pull-in, restoring, self-actuation, and break down voltages are on the order of 25V, 10V, >;45V, and >;150V respectively. MEMS cycling lifetime over 250 Mcycles with no fails has been demonstrated. This paper summarizes the critical integration, yield, and reliability issues associated with developing this rf MEMS technology.

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; aluminium alloys; capacitor switching; copper alloys; field effect integrated circuits; hermetic seals; integrated circuit metallisation; laminates; microswitches; silicon compounds; soldering; AlCu; CMOS integrated circuit; MEMS capacitor switch; MEMS cavity; MEMS chips; MEMS cycling lifetime; RF MEMS technology; SiO₂; hermetic seal; lead-free solder bump; organic laminate package; planar MEMS RF capacitor integration; planar sacrificial silicon cavity process; voltage 10 V; voltage 25 V; Actuators; Capacitance; Capacitors; Cavity resonators; Micromechanical devices; Radio frequency; Silicon; RF MEMS; capacitor; cycling; silicon cavity;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Solid-State Sensors, Actuators and Microsystems Conference (TRANSDUCERS), 2011 16th International

Conference_Location

Beijing

ISSN

Pending

Print_ISBN

978-1-4577-0157-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/TRANSDUCERS.2011.5969479

Filename

5969479