Effect of particles and contaminants on the static response of a rectangular MEMS diaphragm due to adverse clean room environment — Simulation studies

Fabrication of MEMS based multi-functional devices demands complex integration of several micro-engineered components to perfection. It is therefore critical to ensure that at every stage of fabrication the contaminants or particles that get deposited on the device parts do not have any deleterious effect on the device performance. As most of the MEMS based devices are fabricated in a clean room environment the effects of contaminants on the device performance is assumed to be minimal. Nevertheless, it is important to understand device performance with respect to various clean room parameters such as particulate density, temperature and humidity especially if the device is designed to measure very low values of physical/electrical/mechanical parameters. In this article we will focus on the effect of particulate matter on the static stress response of rectangular diaphragm in a MEMS based pressure sensor. Specifically, the static stress responses of a rectangular MEMS diaphragm subjected to the particulate concentration in ISO-6 class clean room environment is investigated using COMSOL Multi-Physics software.