Metal Surface Micromachining Research Articles

Signal Power-Insensitive Analog MEMS Tunable Capacitor by Immobilizing the Movable Plates

This paper presents an extremely power-insensitive microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) tunable capacitor equipped with immobilization capability in the moving plates when an radio frequency signal is flowing. The proposed tunable capacitor is similar to the conventional metal–insulator–metal capacitor, but the top metal plate is capable of moving laterally as well as vertically; it moves to the left and right to set the capacitance value by modulating the overlap area between the top and bottom plates (analog tuning and high capacitance tuning ratio are the merits), and then the top plate is pulled down to be immobilized resulting in remarkable robustness to the signal power, as well as high capacitance value. The proposed tunable capacitor, which was fabricated by metal surface micromachining, showed the tuning ratio of 181% at 2 MHz (470–852 fF) and 194% at 1 GHz with lateral and vertical actuation voltages under 50 V. It also exhibited small capacitance change against the radio frequency (RF) signal power; the maximum capacitance variation by the signal power of up to 9 W was <5.5% over the full tuning range, which is the record-high power insensitivity among the analog MEMS tunable capacitors. This excellent power insensitivity is due to the immobilizing capability of the proposed tunable capacitor. The proposed tunable capacitor maintained the set capacitance value with a variation of <8% over 10 million cycles under 1-W signal (cold switching condition). The design, modeling, fabrication, and measurements, including RF characteristics, are all described in this paper. [2014-0345]

Reduction of out-of-plane warpage in surface micromachined beams using corrugation

Corrugation is proposed as a means of reducing the out-of-plane warpage in surface micromachined beams that result from an asymmetric vertical stress profile. Corrugation increases beam bending stiffness without increasing film thickness, making the beam more immune to intrinsic vertical stress gradients without requiring longer film deposition times, increased beam mass, or careful stress optimization. The technique was tested using a dual-thickness metal surface micromachining process with a photoresist sacrificial layer. Several corrugation patterns and geometries were tested, and the best performing pattern was implemented on a MEMS actuator array. The off-state to on-state capacitance delta of the array improved from 0.24 to 0.7pF and the beam curvature decreased from 180 to 50 nm compared with an uncorrugated array. Other device performance parameters, such as 30 V pull-in voltage and 5 billion cycle switching lifetime, were unaffected.

Parallel-Plate MEMS Variable Capacitor With Superior Linearity and Large Tuning Ratio Using a Levering Structure

An innovative and simple method is proposed to achieve ultralinear behavior in a capacitance-versus-voltage response and to obtain a large capacitance tuning ratio in a parallel-plate microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) variable capacitor by moving the plate to an increasing-gap direction. By adopting a levering structure, the common closing-gap motion of the electrostatic actuator was transformed into an increasing-gap movement in order to decrease the capacitance as the actuation voltage was increased. By balancing out the rate that the plate moves up as the actuation voltage increased and the rate that the capacitance decreases as the plate moves up, high linearity was achieved. The proposed MEMS variable capacitor, which was fabricated via metal surface micromachining, showed an excellent linearity factor (LF) of 99.5% in the C-V response, and a capacitance tuning ratio of 134% was achieved in the actual usage range (10-45 V) at a low frequency. When it was operated at 1 GHz, the proposed device demonstrated an LF of 99.5% and a capacitance tuning ratio of 125%.

MEMS tunable capacitors with fragmented electrodes and rotational electro-thermal drive

This paper reports on the design, simulation and fabrication of tunable MEMS capacitors with fragmented metal (AlSi 4%) electrodes. We examine a rotational electro-thermal actuation. An analytic model of the rotational effect thermal actuator was established in order to show the periodicity of the capacitance when the angle increases. Evaluation of the impact of fringing fields on the capacitance has been carried out using finite element analysis (FEA). The MEMS capacitors were fabricated using metal surface micromachining with polyimide sacrificial layer. The maximum rotation, corresponding to a maximum angle of 7°, was obtained near 1.2 V and 299 mA. The proposed capacitor has a practical tuning range of 30%. FEA has shown that this figure can be improved with design optimization. The MEMS architecture based on rotational effect and fragmented electrodes does not suffer from the pull in effect and offers a practical solution for future above-IC capacitors.