Fabrication of microbridges in standard complementary metal oxide semiconductor technology

Abstract

Complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology is one of the leading fabrication technologies of the semiconductor integrated-circuit industry. We have discovered features inherent in the standard CMOS fabrication process that lend themselves to the manufacturing of micromechanical structures for sensor applications. In this paper we present an unconventional layout design methodology that allows us to exploit the standard CMOS process for producing microbridges. Two types of microbridges, bare polysilicon microbridges and sandwiched oxide microbridges, have been manufactured by first implementing a special layout design in an industrial digital CMOS process, followed by a postprocessing etching step.