Title :
New fabrication process for Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers
Author :
Huang, Y. ; Ergun, A.S. ; Hæggström, E. ; Khuri-Yakub, B.T.
Author_Institution :
Edward L. Ginzton Lab., Stanford Univ., CA, USA
Abstract :
In this paper, we introduce a new method to fabricate Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers (CMUT) that uses a wafer-bonding technique. The transducer membrane and cavity are defined separately on a Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) wafer and on a prime quality silicon wafer, respectively. Using silicon direct bonding in a vacuum environment, the two wafers are bonded forming the transducer. This new process offers many advantages over surface micromachining on the fabrication of the transducers with different cavity and membrane configurations. CMUTs with different dimensions have been successfully fabricated and characterized. For the first time, sub-MHz operation is achieved with CMUTs. The test results show that the new process is a promising method to fabricate CMUTs for operation in air and water at different frequency ranges.
Keywords :
micromachining; silicon-on-insulator; ultrasonic transducers; wafer bonding; SOI wafer; capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers; cavity; fabrication process; frequency ranges; surface micromachining; transducer membrane; wafer-bonding technique; Biomembranes; Fabrication; Frequency; Insulation; Micromachining; Piezoelectric transducers; Silicon; Sputtering; Ultrasonic transducers; Wafer bonding;
Conference_Titel :
Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 2003. MEMS-03 Kyoto. IEEE The Sixteenth Annual International Conference on
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-7744-3
DOI :
10.1109/MEMSYS.2003.1189801