Title :
Micro-contact printed MEMS
Author :
Murarka, Apoorva ; Packard, Corinne ; Yaul, Frank ; Lang, Jeffrey ; Bulovic, Vladimir
Author_Institution :
Massachusetts Inst. of Technol., Cambridge, MA, USA
Abstract :
We report a new method for fabricating thin (140 nm thick) suspended metal films in MEMS. Our MEMS fabrication process employs micro-contact printing. It avoids the use of solvents and etchants, obviating the need for deep reactive-ion etching and other harsh chemical treatments. Solvent absence during fabrication also avoids the deleterious effects of MEMS stiction that can result during wet processing. Elevated temperature processing is also avoided to enable MEMS fabrication on flexible polymeric substrates. Thin films up to 0.78 mm2 in area are fabricated and the deflection of 25 μm diameter films is demonstrated. These films can be utilized in pressure sensors, microphones, deformable mirrors, tunable optical cavities, and large-area arrays of MEMS sensors.
Keywords :
microfabrication; soft lithography; sputter etching; stiction; thin film devices; MEMS sensor; deep reactive-ion etching; deformable mirror; distance 25 mum; elevated temperature processing; flexible polymeric substrate; harsh chemical treatment; large-area array; microcontact printed MEMS; microphone; pressure sensor; size 140 nm; thin metal film; tunable optical cavity; wet processing; Biomembranes; Capacitance; Cavity resonators; Electrodes; Films; Gold; Micromechanical devices;
Conference_Titel :
Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS), 2011 IEEE 24th International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Cancun
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-9632-7
DOI :
10.1109/MEMSYS.2011.5734419
