Abstract
In the present work, aluminum oxide (AL2O3) films have been investigated as an alternative structural material for micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS). The AL2O3 films were prepared by RF magnetron sputtering process and characterized. These were used as structural layers for fabricating basic microstructure elements such as cantilever beams, micro-bridges etc. XRD study of films revealed that annealing of films significantly changed their crystal structure and formed both alpha- and gamma- crystalline phases simultaneously. Stress in AL2O3 film deposited at optimized parameters, was measured to be compressive in nature. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) revealed the RMS value of the surface roughness of as-deposited films to be 1.04 nm, which increased to 5.49 nm on post-deposition annealing at 1000 degC. To show the feasibility of this material for MEMS applications, 2 mum thick single cantilever beams as well as array of cantilever beams were fabricated successfully using bulk micromachining process. These basic microstructures can be used in different applications for MEMS.
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