MICROELECTROMECHANICAL

SYSTEMS
( MEMS )

Dr. Vo Nhu Thanh

 Introduction:

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) refer to devices that have

characteristic length of less than 1 mm but more than 1 micron, that combine
electrical and mechanical components, and that are fabricated using
integrated circuit batch-processing technologies.
 Introduction:
• MEMS stands for Micro-electromechanical systems, a manufacturing
technology that enables the development of electromechanical
systems using batch fabrication techniques similar to those used in
integrated circuit (IC) design.
• They can range in size from micrometers to millimeters
• MEMS integrate mechanical elements, sensors, actuators and
electronics on a silicon substrate using a process technology called
micro fabrication.
• Micro electro mechanical System (MEMS) is making and combining
of miniaturized mechanical and electrical components on a common
silicon substrate through micro fabrication technology.
How MEMS work?
• The sensors gather information by measuring mechanical,
thermal, biological, chemical, magnetic and optical signals from
the environment.

• The microelectronic Ic’s act as the decision-making piece of the

system, by processing the information given by the sensors.

• Finally, the actuators help the system respond by moving,

pumping, filtering or somehow controlling the surrounding
environment to achieve its purpose.
Manufacturing process:
MEMS DESIGN

Fabrication
(Manufacture)

Packaging

Manufacturing
MEMS STEPS Testing
•The MEMS materials:
• Primarily silicon its compounds
• Other materials are quartz crystal, glass, metals
such as aluminum, titanium, tungsten and copper
• Polymers such as photo resist.

•What is Micromachining ?
• Micromachining is a parallel (batch) process in
which dozens to tens of thousands of identical
elements are fabricated simultaneously on the
same wafer.
• Divided into three major categories: basic,
advanced, and nonlithographic processes.
 MEMS and sensors technology
Recent development of MEMS and sensors technology is essentially based on
micromachining. This technology consists of specific design and fabrication
processes, many of which are borrowed from the integrated circuit industry.

The important feature of micromachining, leading to manufacturing costs

reduction is batch fabrication, i.e. simultaneous manufacturing of hundreds or
thousans of identical structures.

Gas sensors fabricated on

3 inches silicon wafer
Schematic process flow in micromachining.
It is repeated until completion of a microstructure.
 1. Thin Film Deposition Processes
In technology of MEMS and sensors one of the main steps is deposition of thin
films of materials in interest.

Deposition technology can be classified in two groups:

Depositions with the help of chemical reactions:

Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD)
Electrodeposition
Epitaxy
Thermal oxidation
These processes exploit the creation of solid materials directly from chemical
reactions in gas and/or liquid compositions or with the substrate material. The solid
material is usually not the only product formed by the reaction.
Byproducts can include gases, liquids and even other solids.

Depositions that happen because of a physical process:

Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD)
Casting
The material deposited is physically moved on to the substrate.
8
Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD)
 Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD)
On the substrate placed inside a reactor a solid material condenses due to chemical
reactions between source gases introduced into the reactor.
The two most important CVD technologies are the Low Pressure CVD (LPCVD) and
Plasma Enhanced CVD (PECVD).

The PECVD process can operate at lower temperatures (down to 300° C) thanks to
the extra energy supplied to the gas molecules by the plasma in the reactor.
However, the quality of the films tend to be inferior to processes running at higher
temperatures. The material is deposited on one side of the wafers.

The LPCVD process produces layers

with excellent uniformity of thickness and
material characteristics.
The main problems with the process are
the high deposition temperature (higher
than 600°C) and the relatively slow
deposition rate.
The material is deposited on both sides
of the substrates (wafers).
10
Typical hot-wall LPCVD reactor
 Add material: Thermal processes

Atmospheric Chemical Vapour

Deposition
• Reaction between gases ans
substrate at high temperature
(900-1100°C)
• Precise control of temperature
• High purity material
• Si + O2  SiO2 (dry SiO2)
• Si + H2O  SiO2 (wet SiO2)
Available @ McGill:
• Oxide thermal growth up to 1.5µm 11
 CVD (Chemical Vapour Deposition)
 Deposition Of Polysilicon :-
25 p.a -150 p.a
SiH4 In CVD Chamber Si + 2H2
600C  650C

Polysilicon may be grown directly with doping.

 Deposition of Silicon dioxide :-

300C  500C
SiH4 + O2 SiO2 + 2H2
900C
SiCl2H2 + 2N2O SiO2 + 2N2 + 2HCl
650C  750C

Si(OC2H5)4 + 2N2O SiO2 + by products

High temperature
Oxide Doped Semiconductor
Impurity
P2O5
 Deposition of Silicon Nitrides

3SiH4 + NH3 Si3N4 + 12H2

3SiCl2H2 + 4NH3 Si3N4 + 6HCl + 6H2

2SiH4 + N2 2SiNH + 3H2

SiH4 + NH3 SiNH + 3H2

• Silicon nitride is common in the semiconductor industry for the

passivation of electronic devices because it forms an excellent
protective barrier against the diffusion of water and sodium
ions
 Plasma Enhanced CVD (PECVD)
The PECVD process can operate at lower temperatures (down to 300° C) thanks to
the extra energy supplied to the gas molecules by the plasma in the reactor.

However, the quality of the films tend to be inferior to processes running at higher
temperatures. The material is deposited on one side of the wafers.

Typical PECVD reactor

• Top electrode RF driven (MHz);

• Substrate sits directly on heated
electrode
• Gas injected into process chamber via
gas inlet in the top electrode

Operating pressure ca. 1 Torr

(1Torr=1mmHg)

14
 Add material: Plasma Enhanced CVD (PECVD)

Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapour

Deposition
• Reaction between two gases @ 300-
400°C and enhanced by plasma
• Allow oxide, nitride or oxynitride to
be deposited on metals for
insulation or passivation/
• High deposition rate: ~1000 A/min
Available @ McGill:
• Silicon Oxide
• Silicon Nitride
• Silicon Oxynitride (under
dev.) 15
 Electrodeposition (electroplating)
Essentially restricted to deposition of electrically conductive materials (metals:
copper, gold, nickel).
The plating process can be also electroless – external electric field and conductive
surface not required – thickness and uniformity of a deposit difficult to control.

Typical setup for electrodeposition. Si wafer plated

with Cu using
copper sulphate

Example solutions for electroplating selected metals

When an electrical potential is applied between a conducting area on the
substrate and a counter electrode (usually platinum) in the liquid, a
chemical redox process takes place resulting in the formation of a layer of
material on the substrate and usually some gas generation at the counter
electrode. 16
 Epitaxial growth
If the substrate is an ordered crystal, it is possible to grow on it the material with
the same crystallographic orientation, which is known as epitaxy.

Vapor Phase Epitaxy (VPE) is the most important process in which the conditions
are created to support epitaxial growth.

Scheme of a typical reactor

used in VPE process

In VPE a number of gases are introduced in an induction heated reactor where

only the substrate is heated. The temperature of the substrate typically must be at
least 50% of the melting point of the material to be deposited.
The high growth rate allows obtaining layers exceeding 100 µm in thickness.
This is the basic technology of production electronic c-Si and also SOI substrates.
1
7
Epitaxial growth

1
8
BASIC PROCESS TOOLS
Deposition Process
Epitaxy: Epitaxy is a deposition method to grow a crystalline silicon layer over a
silicon wafer, but with a differing dopant type and concentration

Impurity dopants
Silicon Contain source gas High Temperature
[AsH3 ; PH3]
[SiH4/SiCl4/SiH2Cl2] ( 800 C )
(Controlled) [Controlled]

 800C
Wafer Scale p-n junction for
Controlled electrochemical etching
 Epitaxial growth

Manufacturing of epitaxial Si using silane:

SiH4 → Si + 2H2
The silane reaction occurs at 650 °C.

IC grade crystalline silicon

2
One of the methods of manufacturing SOI (silicon-on-insulator) substrates
0
 Thermal oxidation
The substrate can be oxidized in an oxygen rich atmosphere.
In the case of silicon the temperature is raised to 800° C - 1100° which gives high
quality amorphous silicon dioxide.
The final oxide thickness can be controlled by selecting the temperature and
oxidizing conditions.
Thermal oxidation of silicon generates compressive stress in the silicon dioxide
film,as SiO2 molecules take more volume than Si atoms, and there is also a
mismatch between the coefficients of thermal expansion of Si and SiO2 .
As a result, thermally grown oxide films cause bowing of the underlying substrate.

850C 1150C
Si + O2/ Steam SiO2

It is Depend on Temperature , Oxidizing environment and Time.

Typical view of a furnace used

for wafers oxidation.
21
 Evaporation
Evaporation belongs to PVD processes in which the material is released from a
source and transferred to the substrate.
In evaporation the substrate and evaporation source are placed inside a vacuum
chamber. The source material is then heated to the point where it evaporates and
the vapours condense on the substrate. Two methods of heating the source are the
most popular: e-beam heating and resistive heating.

Nearly any element (e.g.,Al, Si, Ti, Au),

including many high-melting-point
(refractory) metals and compounds (e.g., Cr,
Mo, Ta, Pd, Pt, Ni/Cr), can be evaporated.

Deposited films consisting of more than one

element may not have the same composition
as the source material due to the differences
in evaporation rates of constituting elements.
The compound films may then be
nonstoichiometric.

Schematic view of a thermal 22

evaporation unit with resistive heating
 Evaporation

Al , Si, Ti,Cr , Al2O3

Heated at high Temperature

(Scanning at high voltage electronic beam)

Evaporation

(Water cooling of the target and shielding

from X-ray)

Condenses on a substrate
to form a film
 Evaporation

Thermal evaporation using laser beam

(PLD technology)
E-beam thermal evaporation

24
Add material and pattern at once: lift-off

sample
sample

sample Metal evaporation

sample
sample
Resist dissolution

25
 Requirements of Deposition

• Since top-down processes may use many layers to form a product,

any deposited layer must be compatible in many ways with what is
below it
• Film Stress
• Conformality
• Uniformity
• Step Coverage
• Thermal compatibility
Result of Non-Uniform Deposition

From MATEC Module 61

 Conformal Coverage

Good Conformal Poor Conformal

Coverage Coverage

From MATEC Module 45

 Step Coverage

From MATEC Module 45

 Evaporative Deposition

• Advantages
• Uniformly covers substrate
• Simple process without chemicals or gases
• Disadvantages
• Alloys are difficult to deposit
• Different metals have different vapor pressures
• High aspect ratio features are difficult to cover
• Trajectory of evaporated particles tends to be vertical, which may not pattern sidewalls
evenly
 Sputtering
In sputtering, a target made of a material to be deposited is physically
bombarded by a flux of inert-gas ions (usually argon) in a vacuum chamber at a
pressure of 0.1–10 Pa.
Atoms or molecules from the target are ejected and deposited onto the substrate.
There are several kinds of sputtering differing by the ion excitation mechanism.

In direct-current (dc) glow discharge, suitable only for

electrically conducting materials, the inert-gas ions are
accelerated in a dc electric field between the target and
the substrate.
In RF (radio frequency), the target and the wafer form two
parallel plates with RF excitation applied to the target.
In ion-beam deposition ions are generated in a remote
plasma, then accelerated at the target.
Applying external magnetic field increases the ion density
near the target, thus raising the deposition rates
(magnetron sputterind).

Deposition of thin films in a typical dc

sputtering unit
 Sputtering
In sputtering, a target made of a material to be deposited is physically
bombarded by a flux of inert-gas ions (usually argon) in a vacuum chamber at a
pressure of 0.1–10 Pa.

Atoms or molecules from the target are ejected and deposited onto the substrate.
There are several kinds of sputtering differing by the ion excitation mechanism.

Deposition of thin films in a typical dc

sputtering unit
 Magnetron sputtering

Applying external magnetic field increases the ion density near the target,
thus raising the deposition rates (magnetron sputtering).

Construction of the
magnetron cathode
 RF and Ion Beam
In RF (radio frequency), the target and Sputtering
the
wafer form two parallel plates with RF
excitation applied to the target.
In ion-beam deposition ions are
generated in a remote plasma, then
accelerated at the target

RF sputtering (left) and ion source sputtering (right)

 Sputtering (3)

• Advantages
• Low temperature process
• Good Conformal Coating
• Good Step Coverage
• Disadvantages
• Dielectrics require RF Source
• RF environment may affect other depositions
 Casting
In casting the material to be deposited is dissolved in a solvent and then applied
to the substrate by spraying or spinning.

This is particularly useful for polymer materials, which may be easily dissolved in
organic solvents, and it is the common method used to apply photoresist to
substrates (in photolithography).
The thicknesses obtained range from a single monolayer of molecules (adhesion
promotion) to tens of micrometers. In recent years, the casting technology has also
been applied to form films of glass (SOG) materials on substrates.
Thick (5–100 μm) SOG has the ability to uniformly coat surfaces and smooth out
underlying topographical variations, effectively planarizing surface features.

Solution casting and transfer printing

collections of individual single-walled
The spin casting process used in deposition carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) onto a
36
of photoresist in photolithography. wide range of substrates
 2. Lithography

Lithography involves three sequential steps:

• Application of photoresist, which is a photosensitive emulsion layer;

• Optical exposure to print an image of the mask onto the resist;
• Immersion in an aqueous developer solution to dissolve the exposed resist and
render visible the latent image.

The mask itself consists of a patterned opaque chromium (the most common),
emulsion, or iron oxide layer on a transparent fused-quartz or soda-lime glass
substrate.

The pattern layout is generated using a computer-aided design (CAD) tool

and transferred into the opaque layer at a specialized mask-making facility, often by
electron-beam or laser-beam writing. A complete microfabrication process normally
involves several lithographic operations with different masks.

37
 Lithography – positive and negative resist
When resist is exposed to a
radiation source of a specific
wavelength (from UV to blue),
the chemical resistance of the
resist to developer solution
changes.

If the resist is placed in a

developer solution, it will etch
away one of the two regions
(exposed or unexposed).

If the exposed material is etched

away by the developer and the
unexposed region is resilient, the
material is considered to be a
positive resist.
The exact opposite process
happens in negative resists.
Transfer of a pattern to a
38
photosensitive material.
 Lithography – subtractive and additive processes

A photosensitive layer is often used as a temporary mask when etching an

underlying layer, so that the pattern may be transferred to the underlying layer.

Photoresist may also be used as a template for patterning material deposited after
lithography. The resist is subsequently etched away, and the material deposited on
the resist is "lifted off".

Pattern transfer from patterned

photoresist to underlying layer by
etching (a) and
pattern transfer from patterned
photoresist to overlying layer by
lift-off (b).

39
 Lithography - alignment

In order to make useful devices the

patterns for different lithography steps
that belong to a single structure must
be aligned to one another.
The first pattern transferred to a wafer
usually includes a set of alignment
marks, which are high precision
features that are used as the
reference when positioning
subsequent patterns, to the first
pattern as shown in the figure.
By providing the location of the
alignment mark it is easy for the
operator to locate the correct feature
in a short time.
Each pattern layer should have an
alignment feature so that it may be
registered to the rest of the layers.
Use of alignment marks to register
40
subsequent layers
 3. Etching

In order to form a functional MEMS

structure on a substrate, it is
necessary to etch the thin films
previously deposited or the substrate
itself.
In general, there are two classes of
etching processes:
wet etching where the material is
dissolved when immersed in a
chemical solution
dry etching where the material is
Differences between anisotropic sputtered or dissolved using reactive
and isotropic wet and dry etching. ions or a vapor phase etchant.

Anisotropic etching in contrast to isotropic etching means different etch rates in

different directions in the material.
The example is the (111) crystal plane sidewalls that appear when etching a hole in
a (100) silicon wafer in the potassium hydroxide (KOH).
41
Remove material: Wet Etch

• Wet Etch
Masking material
• Chemical solution
• Usually Isotropic (can be
anisotropic in crystals)
• Very selective: resist etch rate Etching
vs. material etch rate
• High etch rate
• Difficult to control precisely
• Resolution limitation
• Batch processing

42
 Etching: In etching, the objective is to selectively remove material
using imaged photoresist as a masking template.
 Wet Etching :-
Anisotropic Wet Etching:
Dipped into Removal of material
Depending on the
Substrate Crystallographic orientation
KOH Solution
 Anisotropic etching

The etch front begins at the

opening in the mask and
proceeds in the <100>
direction, which is the vertical
direction in (100)-oriented
substrates, creating a cavity
with a flat bottom and slanted
sides.
The sides are {111} planes
making a 54.7º angle with
respect to the horizontal (100)
surface. If left in the etchant
long enough,the etch ultimately
Anisotropic wet etching of silicon wafer of self-limits on four equivalent
(100) crystallographic orientation. but intersecting {111} planes,
forming an inverted pyramid or
V-shaped trench.

Gas sensor on the silicon

membrane
Electrochemical Etching
 Dry etching
The dry etching technology can split in three separate classes called:
sputter etching, vapor phase (chemical) etching and reactive ion etching (RIE).

In sputter etching the systems used are

very similar in principle to sputtering Ions Ar, O2
deposition systems but the difference is
that substrate is now subjected to the
ion bombardment instead of the target. CF4, SF6

In vapor phase etching the material to

be etched is dissolved at the surface in
RIE
a chemical reaction with the gas
molecules (mostly isotropic process).

In RIE,under the influence of RF power

the gas molecules break into ions which
are accelerated towards, and react at,
the surface of the material being etched.
Illustration of different dry
The balance of chemical and physical
etching processes
etching can give sidewalls that have
vertical shapes. 46
Remove material: Dry Etch

• Dry Etch
• Gas phase
• Sputter + chemical etch
• Anisotropic
• Less selective
• High resolution
• Excellent control
• Single wafer processing
Gas available @ McGill:
• Oxides/Nitrides: CF4, CHF3,
O2, Ar
• Silicon: HBr, Cl2, Ar
• Metals: HBr, Cl2, Ar, N2, NF3

47
 Deep Reactive Ion (DRIE) etching
In this process, etch depths of hundreds of microns can be achieved with almost
vertical sidewalls.
The primary technology is based on the so-called "Bosch process", where two
different gas compositions are alternated in the reactor.
The first gas composition creates a polymer on the surface of the substrate, and the
second gas composition etches the substrate. The polymer is immediately
sputtered away by ion bombardment, but only on the horizontal surfaces and not
the sidewalls. Since the polymer only dissolves very slowly in the chemical part of
the etching, it builds up on the sidewalls and protects them from etching.

Profile of a DRIE trench using

the Bosch process.
Etching aspect ratio (ratio of
height to width) of 50 to 1 can
be achieved.

48
 Remove silicon: Deep Reactive Ion Etching
• DRIE
• We need 2 gases, one for etching
and another one to deposit a
protective polymer.
• We need to alternate etching and
deposition then we pulse the gas
injection
• We need energetic ions to remove
the polymer on the feature bottom
to allow Si etching during SF6 cycle.

available @ McGill: Tegal SDE 110 49

 Deep Reactive Ion Etching ( DRIE )

SF6 isotopic Etching

(SF6 & O2 etches the substrate)

C4F8 deposition

SF6 anisotropic etching

for floor cleaning
 Pattern material: Photolithography

UV exposition through mask

• Resolution (~800nm):
• Wavelength (432nm)
• mask-substrate distance
• resist thickness
• To consider
• Large exposed area (150mm)
• Parallel
• Fast
• Limited resolution

51
Pattern material: Mask design
CleWin LASI

• Designing your mask

• Knowing what kind of shapes you need
• How many mask level ? Alignment
needed ?

52
Pattern material: Electrolithography E-beam

Electron beam direct exposition

• Principle: expose
• electron sensitive polymer
• Direct beam writing
• Resolution: 30nm develop
• E-beam quality (focus,
stigmatism, alignment…)
• Stability of stage
• Thickness of polymer
• To consider
• Limited writing areas
• Serial writing
• slow

53
To the outside world: Dicing

• Dicing:
• Precision diamond saw to cut out wafer in small dies
• Blade thicknesses from 100 to 250µm
• Accurate alignment (~ 50µm)

54
To the outside world: wire bonding
• WireBonder
• Connect microelectrodes to the outside world

55
 Screen printing
A wide variety of materials, including metals, chemical compopunds and ceramics,
can be applied using screen printing (e.g. in sensor technology).

Screen printing begins with the production of a stencil, which is a flat, flexible
plate with solid and open areas.
The stencil has a fine-mesh screen as a bottom layer.
Separately, a paste is made of fine particles of the material of interest, along with
an organic binder and a solvent. A mass of paste is applied to the stencil, then
smeared along with a squeegee. A layer of paste is forced though the openings in
the stencil, leaving a pattern on the underlying substrate.
Drying evaporates the solvent. Firing burns off the organic binder and sinters the
remaining metal or ceramic into a solid.

Illustration of the screen

printing process.

56
 Screen printing

Image reproduction

Thick film layers on

cofired ceramic
substrate used in gas
sensor technology
layer 1 - top layer 2 - top layer 2 - bottom
(interdigital (Pt heater) (contact pads)
Au electrodes) 57
Process flow example

cleaning SiN backside etch

SiN deposition Top side protection

Resist patterning Backside bulk etch

SiN Dry etch Remove protection

Backside resist patterning

with alignment

58
New Methods for
Nanomanufacturing
• Thinner layers are necessary for higher speed transistors in IC design
• Gate oxide thickness < 50 A
• Approaches atomic layer dimensions
• Atomic Layer Deposition
• A 2 step process of deposition and re-layering
• SiOH* + SiCl4 →Si –O-SiCl3 + HCl
• SiCl* + H2O → SiOH* + HCl
New Methods for
Nanomanufacturing
• Molecular vapor deposition
• Anti-stiction layers in MEMS are needed to avoid structures fusing to
substrates
• Vapor deposition of compounds avoids contamination found in liquid
processes
• Oxygen plasma clean operation precedes deposition process
LIGA Process

• LIGA includes X-Ray lithography, electroforming,

and plating operations that construct high aspect
ratio features on substrates
• Precision patterning of a deposited PMMA resist layer
using X-Ray lithography
• Areas remaining after development are plated with metal
• Photo resist and excess metal removed
• Remaining features are high aspect ratio metal
LIGA Process
 Practice Questions
Click once for each question.
1. Which physical deposition process uses plasma?
Sputtering

2. What is an advantage of sputtering?

Low temperature process, good conformal coating

3. What is a disadvantage of evaporative

deposition?
Difficult to deposit alloys, difficult to get good high aspect
ratio feature deposition
 Practice Questions
Click once for each question.
1. What are the advantages of atmospheric CVD?
Simple equipment requirements and batch processing is
possible
2. What is an advantage of low pressure CVD?

Improved purity of deposition and good step coverage

3. What is a principal advantage of plasma enhanced

CVD?
It is a lower temperature process than LPCVD
LIGA Process
Micro Machining
Manufacturing accuracy chart

3
Achievable machining accuracies
 Levels of precision required
Level Tolerance Mechanical Electronic Optical Surface finish
(µm)
Normal 200 µm Normal domestic General purpose Camera, telescope and Shaping 12.5–16
appliances and electrical parts, e.g., binocular bodies Milling 6.3–0.8
automotive fittings, switches, motors, and Reaming 3.2–0.8
etc connectors Turning 6.3–0.4
Drilling 6.3–0.8
50 µm General purpose Transistors, diodes, Camera shutters, lens
mechanical parts for magnetic heads for holders for cameras
typewriters, engines, tape recorders and
etc microscopes

Precision 5 µm Mechanical watch Electrical relays, Lenses, prisms, optical Boring 6.3–0.4
parts, resistors, condensers, fiber and connectors Laser 6.3–0.8
machine tool silicon wafers, TV (multi mode) ECM 3.2–0.2
bearings, color masks Grinding 3.2–0.1
gears, ballscrews,
rotary
compressor parts

0.5 µm Ball and roller Magnetic scales, CCD, Precision lenses, ELID 0.6–0.2
bearings, quartz oscillators, optical Honing 0.8–0.1
precision drawn wire, magnetic memory scales, IC exposure
hydraulic servo- bubbles, magnetron, masks (photo x-ray),
valves, IC line width, thin film laser polygon mirrors,
aerostatic bearings, pressure transducers, x-ray mirrors, elastic
ink-jet nozzles, thermal printer deflection mirrors,
aerodynamic gyro heads, monomode optical
bearings. thin film head discs. fiber
and connectors.
 Levels of precision required

Level Tolerance Mechanical Electronic Optical Surface finish (µm)

Ultra 50 nm Gauge blocks, IC memories, Optical flats, Super

precision diamond electronic precision finishin 0.2–
indentor tip radius, video discs, LSI Fresnel lenses, g 0.025
microtome cutter optical Lappin 0.4–0.05
edge radius diffraction g
gratings,
optical videodiscs
5 nm Ultraprecision VLSI, superlattice Ultraprecision
parts thin films diffraction
(plane, ball, roller, gratings
thread), shape (3-
D)
preciseness
Microcutting processes
Ultrasonic assisted grinding
 Precision mechanical manufacturing

Example of Fanuc Robonano

Linear motion units and rotary units directly
driven by linear motors and built-in servo motors
• Resolution of 1 nm on linear axes (X, Y, and Z)
• Resolution of 0.000001° on rotation axes (B, C)
Static air bearing in all moving section (slides, feed Micro
screws, nuts, and all motor units)  control system channels
no stick slip and backlash, because of no friction
Design of piping optimized to ensure all flow in the
piping is laminar  no vibration attributable to air Micro lenses

turbulence

Micro
projection
array
Milling Turning

In situ
Scribing
measurement
Microgrinding
 Microdrilling applications
• Coarse microdrilling machines drill holes from 0.03 mm in diameter to
0.50 mm in diameter, with increments of 0.01 mm
• Air bearings and bushings
• EDM (Electrochemical Discharge Machining) tooling
• Electronic components
• Gas and liquid flow
• Microwave components
• Nozzles
• Optical components
• Laser is a good option
Laser drilling
• Application of lasers to micromanufacturing has several advantages
• Noncontact processing
• Capability of remote processing
• Automation
• No tool wear
• Possibility of machining hard and brittle materials
Stimulated emission
Pumping and cavity
 Properties of laser light

• Monochromaticity
• Directionality → 1 mrad (0.06°)
• Brightness → 3 mW HeNe laser @ 1 mm beam diameter = 240
brighter than the Sun
• Coherence → coherence length = 3.105 m against 3 µm for white light
• Spatial profile → Gaussian beam most studied
• Temporal profile → continuous or pulsed
 Gas lasers

Laser Active medium Characteristics Applications

He-Ne Ne Power: 0.5-35 mW Interferometry
TEM00 mode, CW Holography
Low divergence Alignment
Wavelength: 632.8 nm Velocimetry

Ar Ar+ Power: up to 25 W Measurements

TEM00 mode, CW Microfabrication
Low divergence Entertainment
Wavelength: 514.5, 488 nm Lithography

CO2 CO2 Power: 100-10,000 W Metal/Paper/Plastic

Multimode, CW & Pulse Cutting, Drilling,
Divergence increases with output power Welding, Marking
Wavelength 10.6 µm

Excimer Noble gas + Halogen Energy: 0.01-2 J Photolithography

Multimode, Pulse Micromachining
gas
Medium divergence Eye surgery
Wavelength: 351, 308, 248, 193, 157 nm
 Solid lasers

Laser Active medium Characteristics Applications

Nd-YAG Nd Power: up to 2400 W Welding, Marking
TEM00 & Multimode, CW & pulse Micromachining
Low divergence Drilling
Wavelength: 1064, 532, 355, 266 nm

Ti-saphire Ti-saphire Energy: up to 2 mJ Ultraprecision

TEM00 mode micromachining
Ultrashort pulse: 10-1000 fs Nonlinear processing
Wavelength: 800 nm

Semiconductor Semiconducting Power: 0.3-2.5 W CD & DVD player

Very small size: ~10 µm Barcode scanner
compound Large divergence: up to 30° Data storage
Wavelength: 780-880, 1150-1650 nm Telecommunication

Fiber Rare earth Power: up to 100,000 W Telecommunication

TEM00 mode Welding
material High efficiency Marking
Wavelength: 350-2100 nm Micromachining
Laser micromachining

200 µm
100 µm
100 µm

1 µm
100 µm 200 µm