SiC Freestanding Micromechanical Structures on Silicon-On-Insulator Substrates

Abstract

The fabrication of freestanding SiC microstructures on Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) and semi-insulating Silicon substrates is reported. SiC layers were grown on SOI and semi-insulating Si by chemical vapour deposition (CVD) and to avoid the instability currently obtained in SOI structures, the growth process parameters have been optimized. Isotropic wet chemical etching of the Si sacrificial layer released the electrostatic SiC microstructures patterned by dry etching. Moreover a new concept for reducing the gap between resonators and electrodes by the uses of bistable mobile electrodes is introduced.